Elements Of Three
by Fourth Season
Summary: Three siblings awake to find that they can control warriors from one of their favorite video games. Trolls attack their home, their parents are captured, and the fate of the world is in the hands of three children. Will they be able to save the world, or will they fail, and let billions be left to a horrible fate. (Bad summary, I know, I can't write them well. Rated T for violence)
1. The Encounter

**Hello readers! Fourth Season here! This is my first video game oriented story, and it's written with the help of my lil brother and sister! Pretty much, I had a random dream that my siblings and I could control the elemental warriors, so I decided to write this! Our names, ages, and appearances are changed, of course, but we are all working together to write dialog and create a plot roller coaster! This probably won't be popular, or very good, but oh well! Thanks for reading!**

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It happened suddenly, during the dark cover of night. Tori, being a light sleeper, woke up as soon as her ears caught the grotesque voices. She opened one eye, the one that was pressed against the pillow, and was greeted by the sinister maw of a troll.

The beast's teeth were askew, and two lower canines were huge, jutting out from its lower lip. The green face was gross, dry, and bumpy looking, as if the troll had permanent acne. The troll's irises were black, and it's eyes were sunken into its head, the sockets drooping down upon its face. Long, crumpled, scarred ears protruded from the side of its skull. Its breath was horrid, reeking of rot and neglect. Tori forced down a cough. _This_ _guy needs a breath mint, or better yet, two packs of Altoids! Wait a second! There's a freaking troll in my house!_

The troll grunted, blowing more disgusting stench into Tori's face, and leaned down to look at Tessa, Tori's younger sister.

Tori took this opportunity to reach for the loose rung on her bunk bed. She detached it as quietly as she could, and was about to swing at the troll when her sister woke up, screaming in fright at the creature hovering over her. Tori jumped with a start, squealing despite herself, and lost the rung in the process.

The troll looked up at her, scowling and snorting. It opened its mouth to call out for backup, but was cut short when it was hit upside the head by an icy fist, and punched in the gut by a thorny hand.

Tori, realizing her punch had actually hurt the beast, proceeded to beat he crap out of it. She threw off her rainbow comforter and jumped off the top bunk and onto the floor. From here, she was actually taller than the troll, who seemed gigantic, nearly seven feet tall, just mere moments ago. Too adrenaline pumped to notice, she kept punching it, backing it up against the purple dresser on the far wall.

Tori could hear Tessa cheering her on, but Tessa's voice was muffled.

Tori kept attacking, wanting to protect her little sister, who was only twelve years old. She dodged what attacks she could, but still took a fist to the face, which didn't break her head or send blood flying, even though it should have strong enough to bash her skull through.

Angry that he landed a blow, Tori strengthened her attacks. Eventually, the troll exploded in a haze of flies.

"Eew!" Tori screamed, batting at the flies with her hand, "Get 'em off me!"

Tori heard Tessa chuckle. _Why you little..._

She backed away from the buzzing swarm, spitting out what was in her mouth, even though none of them went in there.

She turned to look at Tessa, but to Tori's surprise, Pummel Weed, a character from one of her favorite video games, was there, cowering under the blankets.

"What on earth are you doing here," She yelled, enraged, "And where have you taken my sister!" She reached out a hand and grabbed Pummel Weed's slender chest, thorns digging into her hands, but they, surprisingly, didn't hurt or draw blood.

"Let go of me you freak! And who's your sister?" Pummel weed snapped, squirming and trying to punch Tori.

Instead of letting go, Tori squeezed tighter. "Her name's Tessa Lloyd. She's yeh high, twelve years old, blond hair, blue-green eyes, annoying personality-"

"Hey! Don't insult me!" Pummel Weed shouted.

"I'm not insulting you I'm insulting... Wait" Tori began quickly and slowed down, putting down Tessa, before speaking really fast, "If your Tessa, and your Pummel Weed, because that isn't possible, that means I'm dreaming! And if I'm dreaming, then that's why I was able to kill the troll. And why video games are coming to life, and why-"

"Wait, what? I didn't understand any of that." Tessa said, a confused expression on her planty face.

"Tessa, it's me, Tori! I'm dreaming, and when I wake up, this will all be over." She dazed off into space, looking out the window to her left.

"Oh, reeeaally," Tessa replied skeptically, putting her hands on her hips, "If your telling the truth, tell me something only Tori would know about me?"

Tori growled and tried to stomp her foot in annoyance, but it didn't feel right. She looked down and saw that instead of legs, she had a snowball for a bottom half. She screamed, jumping back, and rolled into the bathroom that was connected to her bedroom.

Looking in the mirror, the shocked face of Forty Below was reflected back at her. Tori moved her arm, and Forty Below moved his._Oh my gosh! I'm Forty Below! Thats why I was able to beat up a troll. Huh, _She thought, making a fist_, I'm pretty strong now! Tyler won't be able to call me wimpy anymore!_

Tori left the bathroom and waved to Tessa, knowing her answer. "Well, Tessa, I know that you stalk Jack!" She proclaimed, a smug look on her face.

"I don't stalk him! We were on a field trip, I was bored, I just took a few pictures, okay!" She retorted.

Tori laughed and replied, "But you took, like, fifteen of them."

"Aughh!" Tessa groaned, and opened her mouth the talk back, but was cut off when they heard Tyler scream.

_Oh no!_

The two sisters rushed through the door, into the hallway, turned left, and burst through the door to their little brother's bedroom.

The scene before them was most dire. Rubble was on Tyler's bed, surrounded by little fire trolls. He was shooting rocks at them, getting visibly annoyed when he missed. Suddenly, all of the trolls leaped onto the bed, surrounding Tyler and setting it aflame. The fire leaping to the ceiling.

Tyler screamed, and Tessa rushed forward to try and save him, but Tori put her arm in front of Tessa and said solemnly, "We can't help him, we'll both die from the fire if we try." Tears escaped her eyes, and the two sisters cried over their lost brother.

Then, the sound of a constipated animal sounded from the fire, and rocks shot out of the flames, trolls pinned to them. They slammed into the walls and burst into flies, the rocks then returned to the flames.

Tyler, as rubble, rolled out unharmed. "Did you guys see that," He exclaimed, and proceeded to sing a song, " Everything is Rubble! Everything is cool when your Ruuuble! Everything is Rubble! Because I'm Rubble!"

Ignoring his weird song, the two sisters ran over and gave him a huge hug, crying with happiness.

"W-w-we thought you were-were dead!" Tori stammered.

"Of course I'm not dead," He said, rolling backwards, his amber eyes glowing, "I'm awesome!" He lit up in a green light, and Thermite stood before them, struggling to hold up his cannon. "My legs are TINY!" He said, slipping and falling on the floor.

Tori and Tessa laughed, but the light mood was short lived. Grunts and roars sounded from the behind them, and the threesome turned to see a hallway full of trolls.

"Don't worry guys, I can handle it!" Tyler said cockily, positioning his cannon towards the trolls.

"NO!" Both sisters shouted.

"You'll burn the house down!" Tessa yelled.

"Well fine then, we'll just DIE!" He retorted, glaring at Tessa.

"Just turn into something else!" She snapped.

"What else!"

"I don't know! Something!"

He growled, and tried to look menacing, which was hard because he was an ant.

Meanwhile, the trolls laughed at their quarreling, some of them even mocked Tyler in high pitched voices. "What else." They said, dancing around on their toes like ballerinas.

Tyler-got-angry. His Thermite face grew even redder, his eyes blazing, fists clenched, a look of malice on his face.

Tori and Tessa backed up, afraid of getting caught in the crossfire.

Tyler flashed green, growing in size until he was a huge gorilla. He was Chilla. Tyler pounded on his chest yelled a battle cry, and he ran forward, throwing trolls into the air and impaling them on the spikes on his back.

The trolls yelled and cried out as they became impaled, their arms and legs squirming.

Soon, an enraged blue gorilla with trolls stuck on his back turned to his sisters, panting and clenching his fists.

"Tyler," Tori soothed cautiously, slowly lowering her hands, "You're okay now. We're all safe. You can calm down now."

"Not yet." He grumbled, and then ran through the hallway and living room before trampling down the door. Tori and Tessa followed him, and watched as he, one by one, pulled the trolls off his back and hurled them into the air. They flew over the trees and into the distance, past the threesome's field of vision.

"Now I can calm down." Tyler said quietly, and reverted to his usual self, an olive skinned, tousle haired boy with dark chocolate eyes and brown hair.

Tori rolled over to him, subconsciously turning back to her normal blue-eyed, light brown haired self. She tried to hug Tyler, but he moved away, his eyes still burning with anger.

"Hey guys," Tessa, also back to normal, pointed at four trolls leaping through their cabin window, the glass shattering into millions of tiny peices. The trolls emerged with the siblings parents. Kicking and screaming, Katie and Arnold Lloyd were thrown into a swirling, blue portal, disappearing into its depths.

Then, a troll turned around and scowled at them, a malicious smile on its lips, and it threw a bomb into their house.

The little wooden cabin lit up immediately, the flames like tongues of a great beast, leaping into the sky and lapping at the air.

"No!" Tori cried out, tears escaping her eyes. She turned to glare at the troll, running at it, but it just jumped into the portal.

Tori almost followed, but was held back by Tessa. "Tori," She shouted, straining to keep hold of her older sister, "Our pets aren't home! They're at the kennel! Remember! We were gonna move!"

"But they still took mom and dad!" Tori growled, but stopped her pursuit. "Wait, I forgot, I'm dreaming!" She exclaimed, "When I wake up, mom and dad will be back, the house won't be on fire, and everything will be back to normal!"

"You think you're dreaming," Tyler asked, confused, "I thought I was dreaming!"

"What!?" Tori exclaimed, whirling on him, "You thought that this whole time and only said it now!" She turned to Tessa, "Do you think you're dreaming too?"

"Of course I did!" She replied.

"Oh, no! Somebody, quick, slap me!" Tori commanded.

Tyler and Tessa slapped Tori in the face and the arm at the same time, and it HURT!

"Ow!" Tori yelled, backing away and holding a hand to her face and a palm to her arm, "If I can feel pain, and you both think you're dreaming, then that means this is real!" Tori steeled herself, fists clenched, "We need to get our parents back!"

"How will we do that?" Tessa asked.

"Duh," Tyler replied, "We use our awesome warrior powers! And me of course! Booh-yah!"

"Don't say that again." Tessa said.

"What? Booh-yah? Booh-yah, Booh-yah, Booh-yah!" Tyler retorted.

"Guys," Tori grabbed them by their shirts, " Stop fighting! It's not important right now!"

The two younger siblings then started to slap fight, annoying their older sister, who groaned and stepped back to avoid getting hit.

Suddenly, they all felt a pulling sensation, and stopped their bickering to see that the portal was swirling faster, pulling up dirt and grass, and dragging the siblings towards it. They all tried to walk forward, away from the portal, but it was too strong. They were uprooted from the floor and sucked in by the portal.

At first it felt like being stretched out to the limit, swirling in endlessly fast circles. Then, the nauseating whirling cultivated, and the feeling of being underwater engulfed the three. They felt one last tug before being spat out on dirty, charred land.

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**I know, not my best work, but don't worry! The next chapter will have a lot more details! Also, what do you think about the beginning? If there's anything you would like me to elaborate on or change, fell free to tell me. Please R&amp;R!**


	2. A Familiar World

The three siblings woke up on a charred area of dirt. The soil below them was stained black, and it was hot to the touch. The land in front of them changed drastically from the land beneath the three. It was rich and dark, with grass and moss riddled through it.

They were at the foot of a giant hill that was adorned with several cobblestone paths. The hill had large patches of bright green grass and a huge hole bitten out of its side. Peppered across the hill were small bushes and trees.

A lake of lava unfurled behind them, a demolished stronghold beyond its limits. The lava itself was flanked on both sides by huge black mountains that were riddled with lava flows. They loomed over the siblings with a deep sense of foreboding. The sky was shadowy and overcast, making the mountains seem that much creepier.

Above the hill, a floating spire of land with a castle upon the top of it was encased in a beautiful, multicolored sphere. Upon closer inspection, three beams of light extended from three different points of the sphere. One light was green, another red, and the last, blue.

"Where are we?" Tessa asked, rubbing her head from the fall.

"I don't know, but this is AWESOME!" Tyler replied, not even fazed by the trip.

"HUSH! I think I hear someone coming." Tori whispered, spreading her hand in front of the two and pushing them behind her.

The sound of light footsteps and whispers filled the air. In just a few seconds, three burly men appeared from around the corner, spotted the three children, walked over quickly, and towered over them.

Their armor was blue, and it was open at the arms, creating a vest. The vest itself had many swirling lines that started at one central point, a small yellow diamond. Another golden jewel was imbedded in their helmets, which had silver linings and holes for their long ears to poke out of. They wore brown belts that had blue gems fastened through them. Their leg guards had twirling silver lines, and steel knee bracers. Their shoes were dark blue, and had steel points. They wore purple gloves, and had purple sashes that were stretched across their helmets to cover their lower faces. Only their eyes and foreheads were able to be seen.

"State your business," The tallest of them, who also had small shields on his arms, demanded.

Tyler, grinning and acting goofy, replied,"It's mostly brown and a little green someti-"

"Tyler!" Tessa hit him on the back, smiling from the joke and trying not to giggle.

"Come with us, we need to take you to the Enchanted Kingdom." The first said in a monotone voice, but the other two snickered at Tyler's answer.

"Oh, okay." Tori said quietly, diverting her eyes and staring at the floor. She was almost always shy around new people, especially when they were tall and scary.

The soldiers each took one sibling by the arm and escorted them to the hill.

When they began to climb up the hill, Tyler looked up at his guard with a shocked face and exclaimed, "We have to climb up that!" He fell back dramatically, thumping to the floor in fake exhaustion, "I'm too weak! I'll never make it!" He whined, putting a hand to his face and closing his eyes.

The guard growled, reached down, picked Tyler up, and slung him over his shoulder. Tori rolled her eyes, and they all began the climb.

It was long and tiring, and the guards had to stop several times for the sisters to catch up or catch their breath. Tyler just whistled and enjoyed his ride.

Eventually, they made it to the top. A stone circle with three spires sat in the middle of the brown cobblestone clearing, with each spire being topped with a glowing jewel whose colors matched the beams of light. A portal comprised of three multicolored, spinning disks was in the middle of the stone circle.

Tori wasn't looking forward to going through that, so she walked over to the edge of the hill and looked around. She could see the fiery place that they came from, snowy mountains next to it. A huge, sunny brown and green mountain with several waterfalls was next to the snow caps, and smaller hills were next to the waterfall mountain. Three nearby statues shot different colored beams of light to the hill that Tori was standing upon.

"Come on," Her guard said roughly, "We need to get you to the queen."

Tori gulped, knowing what that meant.

He pulled her over to the portal, and pushed her through.

Tori braced herself, ready for the same sensation as last time, but was surprised to see that she was ascending, the land growing smaller and smaller beneath her. Looking down, Tori could see her sister coming up after her, and she waved. Tessa didn't notice.

They appeared in a dungeon. It was dank, but not dark. Several torches lined the walls, but before they could get a look around, the siblings were spirited away up the stairs.

They were led through a golden gate, past several gawking fuzzy things, over a waterfall bridge, and up a large flight of stairs to a balcony.

Shoved through a purple door, the three found themselves in a golden lighted room. The floor was checkered with gold and red squares, and light streamed in through a window on the far side. A circular indent in the middle of the room depicted a yellow diamond with swirling blue lines, and pillars lined the left and right walls. Several more soldiers stood by, laughing and joking amongst themselves.

An orange fuzzy, monkey-like thing with a broom passed them. It had blue, crystalline wings, dark orange tabby stripes, big blue eyes, and long, low hanging ears. It sheepishly waved to them before returning to work.

The soldiers dragged the siblings across the center of the room and made them kneel before a throne on steps. Two small, marble staircases on their left and right led to the throne, and a red carpet that the throne sat on hung over the edge of the platform and descended to the floor rolling over two more steps before stopping at a point before the painting.

Tori, Tessa, and Tyler had to shield their eyes because the light was so bright it was practically bursting forth from the windows.

A middle aged woman sat on the throne. She had bright green eyes, long black hair in a braid, and a flowing, green dress with long, tight sleeves.

The three guards bowed low to the ground. "Queen Kameo," The leader of the three said respectfully, " We found these three children near Thorns castle."

"And they are not elves?" She responded, looking at her fingernails, obviously bored.

"No, my Queen" He replied.

"Then hold them in the dungeon until further notice." She said dryly, uninterested.

"Yes, my Queen." The guard nodded, and motioned for his soldiers to seize the siblings.

"NO! No dungeon, detention is bad enough." Tyler exclaimed. When the guards jumped on and grabbed him, he turned into Chilla and threw the men off of him.

"Guys, HELP!" He roared, smacking a soldier away.

Tori, angered that they had tried to harm her brother, bellowed and turned into Snare, grabbing the nearest guard in her jaws and flinging him across the room. Tessa transformed into Ash, biting down on the attackers.

The battle was on!

Tessa and Tyler fought back to back, clawing, biting and punching anyone who came near. Tori, separated from the other two, rooted herself in the floor, swinging her neck in large circles that sent nearby guards flying.

The trio defeated many a soldier, but more kept streaming in. The warriors were beginning to overwhelm them, and the siblings grew tired.

Just when they had lost all hope, Queen Kameo screamed, "STOP!"

The guards obeyed and backed away from the snarling trio.

"You," She pointed at the kids, "You can turn into the Elemental Warriors?"

"Well, duh, isn't it obvious." Tessa replied.

An aggravated Tori growled, "Tessa, show more respect! It's foolish to insult her! You could get us all killed!"

Tyler opened his mouth to add something, but a quick glare from Tori made him keep it shut.

Queen Kameo, ignoring their outburst, continued with her questioning, "How long have you had these powers?"

Tori and Tyler opened their mouths to reply, but Tessa beat them to it, "Like, a day," She said, hands on her hips, still treating the queen like she would any other kid from school, " Ever since some Trolls attacked our house, stole our parents, and we were sucked into this world by a strange, swirly portal."

Kameo leaned forward in her seat. "Trolls, you say? That can't be true. I eradicated those beasts years ago."

"They might have come through the portal and hid on Earth, breeding like cockroaches." Tyler said in a deepened, eerie voice.

Tessa and Tori stared at him, dumbfounded.

"What," Tyler shrugged, brushing his hair out of his eyes, "Video game logic."

Tori face-palmed, shaking her head, and Tessa fiddled with her hands.

The queen nodded and replied, "You may be correct. Guards," She shouted, and five soldiers appeared from behing the trio, "Take them to a hut. They will begin training in the morning."

"Wait, what," Tyler exclaimed, "Training! That's practically school! I hate school!" He flung his hands in the air, waving them around and running in circles.

The sisters laughed at his silliness.

"Tyler," Tori chuckled, "You look like an idiot! And training is way better than dungeon. Just go with it."

Tyler glared at her, but stopping running around. Then, the five banged up soldiers bowed to the queen before turning to the trio. They took the siblings by the arms, and led them down the stairs, around the castle, across a meadow, and into a hut by a farmer's field. They shoved the three inside and stood by the door.

The hut was practically empty indoors, but there was a small cot by the left wall. Tyler groaned, and Tori waved Tessa and her brother to the cot, taking the floor. The first night was definitely a long, uncomfortable one.


	3. The Long Night And The Next Morning

After hours of tossing and turning on the hard, cold ground, Tori decided to give up on sleep. She sat up with a muffled groan and stared at the dark walls, following the cracks with her eyes and looking for patterns that weren't there. After who-knows-how-long of doing that, she grew bored and turned her attention to her siblings.

The two of them were squeezed onto the little cot, the thin white sheet balled up in their fists and tucked tightly against their sides. Tyler was wearing the same shorts and white tank top he had worn the night of the attack, while Tessa was wearing gray short-pajama shorts and a pink tee shirt, and Tori deduced that this world must have a different time schedule. That would partly explain why she couldn't sleep.

She looked down with a sigh at her baggy orange tee shirt and black soccer shorts. She had decided to just throw something on the night before because where they'd lived, there had been a nice, warm climate. But now, Tori wished she had shoved on something a little more cozy than the ragtag outfit she had just thrown together at the last minute. The hut had a chill air to it that made her shiver, and Tori absolutely _hated_ the cold!

She got up to stretch her stiff legs, hoping the movement would warm her, when a warm breeze blew in from outside. The girl whipped her head around towards the source, which turned out to be a little window not far from her.

Stepping over and looking out, Tori saw a serenne meadow with grass that flowed in the wind and fireflies that floated through the air. The meadow was dotted with flowers the hues of red, yellow, and white, and the air smelled fresh with the aroma of the blossoms. Tori sucked in a deep breath, then quietly sneezed. She had forgotten that she was slightly allergic to some pollen. She shrugged. _Oh well._

The blue-eyed girl glanced over the glade once again and spotted a few of the fuzzy things flitting around. A blue one waved at her, and she waved back before yawning. She closed her eyes and covered her mouth with a palm, and when she opened them again, the fluffy thing was right in front of her saying, "Hi!"

Tori fell back on her bottom with a grunt. "Ow," she mumbled, rubbing her bruised hind end.

"Oh, great Queen Kameo! I am _so_ sorry!" The fuzzy creature apologized in a silvery voice, a worried ecypress ion his face.

"It's okay," Tori replied, getting up, "You didn't smack me over the head with a trombone."

The blue thing cocked its head. "What's a trombone?"

"It's a brass musical instrument. I like to call them adult trumpets," she answered, blowing a strand of hair off of her face.

"Um," the fuzzy creature answered sheepishly, "I guess we don't have those here..."

"Oh," Tori paused, a sheepish half smile crossing her face as she scratched her head, "Sorry."

"It's okay," the thing replied, "I'm Alistair, by the way." The now named Alister reached out a hand for her to shake.

The light-brown haired girl awkwardly took it. She had never been one for contact with strangers, or just people in general for that matter. She quickly shook his hand—for she had guessed that the blue fuzzy-fae, a name she had dcided to call the fluffy creatures, were male and the orange were female—and stepped back to glance out the edges window.

"Is there anyone waiting for you out there?" She asked, partly because there were several fuzzy-fae floating around and partly because she wasn't quite comfortable with talking to some random person.

He glance back at the glade. "Nah, I'm just hanging around here because my house is _so boring_." He said this with an adorable little smile that made Tori forget about her previous want to get away. He was starting to remind her of some of her friends back home, as well as her younger brother, and it was a welcome reprieve from the alien culture she had stepped into.

"Well, I bet it's more exciting than sitting here and staring at a wall," she replied a little sarcastically.

He chuckled. "Nope, all I ever get to do at my house is try and do dumb sports! I'd much rather go off and read some science and history books!"

Tori nodded, agreeing with him. Though, she did enjoy playing soccer for recreation.

"I just wish my world's science books could tell me how I got here," She sighed, "This place doesn't exist as far as the earth is concerned."

Alistair reached up a hand and put it on his chin for a moment before his eyes lit up, and he replied, "Your's may not, but ours do!" He then proceeded to inform Tori of the inner workings of the universe.

It turned out that all of the worlds were connected by a thin lattice of portals that crossed between dimensions. Every video game and movie ever made had a world of its own, and Tori shuddered at the thought of the Flood from Halo and the zombies from Left 4 Dead being real.

A combination of magic and technology made the Portals, and said invention sent items and organisms shooting through the tubes between worlds.

"Queen Kameo made a rule that no one was allowed to pass into the other worlds except with her special permission when they were created," Alistair finished.

Sometime during their conversation, he had slung himself through the window and was now laying with his stomach on the sill and his head and arms inside of the hut. The sun was coming up on the horizon, its orange light filtering through the cracks between Alistair and the sill, and the blue fuzzy-fae said a quick goodbye before trying to wiggle himself out of the small, round window.

"Oh, _troll_," he huffed, his efforts fruitless, "I'm stuck!"

"Uh oh," Tori murmured, "Try pushing off the outside with your legs."

The fluffy guy did as he was told, but to no avail.

"Man," he grumbled, hanging limply in defeat, "I'm going to be stuck here _forever_."

Tori scanned him and the sill up and down. "Maybe not. Grab my hands."

"Uh..."

"Just do it," she said, rolling her eyes.

After a moment of hesitation, Alistair complied, and Tori got a good grip and planted her feet at the beginning of the wall. Pushing off the wall with all her might, she managed to dislodge the fuzzy-fae, but the force of it sent him falling on top of her.

"Oof!" They both grunted in unison, before quickly untangling themselves and sitting up.

Just then, a loud, booming knock came at the door. "Get up and put these on!" A soldier yelled from the other side of the purple door before he threw some clothes inti the hut.

Tyler groaned, rolling over, and Tessa blinked her eyes open sleepily. Yawning, the blond girl sat up and stretched, rubbing at her eyes.

"I better go," Alistair whispered.

"Bye," Tori whispered back, wondering why on earth they were whispering, but still doing it all the same.

Alistair gingerly flew across the room and slipped out of the door.

"Who was that?" Tessa asked tiredly.

"A friend," Tori replied, bending down to grab one of the outfits that had been thrown into the room. She tossed the other two at her siblings and said, "Here, put these on."

The two bundles fell close to the cot, and Tori sighed at her bad aim. Arm strength had never been her thing.

They all pulled on their new clothes, and Tori was surprised at the lightness of the fabric. It was cozy and black, with silver swirls patterned all across it. Each if the pieces fit together perfectly on each of their bodies, and Tori wondered how on earth the people could have gotten their sizes. The clothes also stuck close to them and covered everything but their faces, so they felt like a second skin.

"You done in there!?" An angry guard yelled and banged on the door, "HURRY UP!"

"Geez," Tessa mumbled, shoving on her gloves, "Give a girl a break."

Tori sighed and walked forward to open the door, her siblings following behind her.

Once they left the hut, they were immediately met by an elf that was even bigger and buffer than the others. "Come on," he snarled, "We haven't got all day."

The elf led them down a dirt path that cut through the meadow and up to the purple castle. A gigantic gate now stood in their way.

It was huge and ornate, its color a beautiful gold. It reached up towards the sky and rooted down towards the ground with only a small amount of space between. It had swirls and bars built into it, and Tori guessed that it had to be at least twenty feet tall.

"Now," the soldier huffed, crossing his beefy arms, "Which one of you can turn into Pummel Weed?"

Tessa somewhat shyly raised her hand.

The guard then continued with, "Then turn into him and use your Weed Creeper ability to burrow underneath it and hit the button on the other side."

Tessa closed her eyes and concentrated. She then flashed in a white-blue light and transformed into Pummel Weed.

"Uh," she looked down at her rose thorn fists, "How do I do Weed Creeper?"

The soldier face-palmed, his face going a deep red, before violently shouting, "JUST BURROW INTO THE GROUND YOU NINNY!"

Tessa, scared by his outburst, squealed and disappeared into the ground. She then dug under the gate and popped up on the other side. Somewhat hesitantly, she pressed a button, and the gate split in half and slid sideways into the surrounding walls.

The solder gave her a growl as he passed by and led them up an incline. He then had them walk on a cobblestone sidewalk next to a meadow and turn left. Opening the big purple doors wide, he shoved them in and announced, "_This_ is the Training Room."


	4. Training

Tori let out a gasp, Tessa stared at a wall, and Tyler bounced on his feet eagerly. The room that they had entered into was filled with different types of equipment. An ice climbing wall with multiple paths was on the far end of the room. A large track traveled across the sides of the room, its road full of hoops, hurtles, tunnels, two mud pits, an ice covered area, a few walls, and even a pit of fire! In the middle of the room, several weight lifting stations were centered closer to the door, and targets were closer to the ice wall. A cage like the ones used for wrestling hung above the empty space between the targets and weight stations, its gray mesh-like links twinkling as the light from bulbs on the ceiling hit it.

"This. Is. Awesome!" Tyler squealed, hopping excitedly, and he rushed forward across the track to get to the ice wall. He turned into Chilla, covering the great distance easily in this form, and began to make his way up, digging his spikes into the wall.

"Hey," The guard yelled angrily, "Get down from there!"

Tyler let go of the wall, and fell to his feet. He shuffled across the room, a peevish expression on his gorilla-face.

The soldier continued to scold the boy, his pointy ears turning red with anger. "You DO NOT disobey my orders! And you DO NOT go rushing off to do what YOU WANT! You are a soldier now, and I am your ranking officer. YOU WILL obey my every instruction! IS THAT CLEAR?"

"Yes sir," Tyler mumbled, not meeting the man's eyes.

"Look me in the eyes and speak up! I _said,_ IS THAT CLEAR?!"

"YES SIR!" Tyler answered loudly, like a soldier in the army.

The guard nodded, and turned away to give orders to the girls.

Tyler stuck out his tongue and made an angry face behind the soldier's back. Tessa almost giggled, but stopped herself before she could. Tori was just annoyed. _Can't he just listen! _She thought.

"You two, what elementals do you have?" The soldier inquired gruffly.

"W-Well, um, I'm pretty sure I can turn into Forty Below and Snare," Tori stuttered shyly, scraping her feet across the dirt surface of the track underfoot.

Tessa somewhat eagerly replied, "And I can be Pummel Weed and Ash."

"I've got Chilla, Rubble, and Thermite!" Tyler, back to his normal self, boasted.

The guard whirled on him. "Did I ask you?" He snapped.

"No sir." Tyler answered.

"Then you don't answer."

"Yes sir."

The guard scowled at the boy, before turning back to the other two. "You," He said, pointing at Tori, "Are the oldest, so you are the corporal. That means you are the leader of this team." He added at their confused expressions.

Tori could faintly hear Tyler grumbling at the prospect of not being in charge. And Tessa thought,_ No fair!_

The soldier continued, "My name is Trainer K, I will be your teacher for the next few months of your training. In the meantime, you will be put through daily exercises to increase your strength, mobility, speed, endurance, and fighting skills; You will also learn how to react in intense situations, traverse obstacles, control your elemental warriors, and be a better working unit," Trainer K pointed to the red line on the track beneath them, "Today, you will run the obstacle course. You will be timed, and use of elemental warriors is permitted. Now LINE UP," He commanded, and the siblings set themselves up across the line, with Tessa on the outside, Tori close to the wall, and Tyler in the middle, "Ready, set, GO!" Trainer K shouted, starting the race.

They took off, Tessa and Tyler sprinting forward, and Tori keeping a paced run behind. "One and two and three and four and," She counted, setting her foot down on ever half note.

Soon, they came up to their first obstacle. A large hurtle stood in their way. Tessa jumped it in human form, Tyler became Chilla and leaped over, and Tori sprung over it behind them. _That wasn't so bad..._

Tyler now had the lead, and he just kept on sprinting forward, relishing the feel of conquering the others. But his happiness was short-lived, and he soon found his furry paws stuck in mud.

Tessa caught up to him and changed into pummel weed, gliding easily across the mucky obstacle with her leafy legs.

"Hey! No fair!" Tyler yelled thrashed until he had released his arms, and then proceeded to trudge his way through.

As he was doing so, Tori caught up and stopped at the edge of the pit, judging the distance. She had a feeling that Snare wouldn't be any help here, and she had no desire to get the mud in her clothes. Eventually, she shrugged and backpedaled aways away. Steeling herself, Tori sprinted forward and leaped over the pit, aiming for her brother's back. She reached for one of his icy spines and turned into Forty Below just before she was impaled, and she just bounces off the hard on, Tori let her brother do the work while she had a nice ride. Once he was almost there, she turned back into herself, climbed unto his head, and jumped off of him.

"Hey! No hitchhiking!" Tyler shouted, his face furious. He hadn't noticed her until she had turned back to her normal form. The ice on his back had felt normal until then.

"Too bad, so sad! This is what you get for not walking up that mountain," Tori taunted, turning and running off.

"It wasn't a mountain, it was a hill!" Tyler bellowed as he emerged from the mud, his pelt coated with it, and gave chase.

Tessa, meanwhile, had made it far ahead of the other two. She had slowed down her pace, leisurely jumping over hurtles and crawling through tunnels, but she was now stopped at a wall. It was small compared to other buildings, but it reached nearly ten feet in height! There was just no way she could make that jump.

While their sister was trying to figure out how to get past her obstacle, the other two were gaining on her. Well, Tori was running away from an enraged Tyler, who was kicking up brown dust and looked as if he was going to kill his sister.

As they charged towards her, Tessa felt herself change into another form, and she curled up as Major Ruin to protect herself. Tori, seizing her chance, quickly jumped on top of the four-foot-tall armadillo and leaped on top of the wall. Tyler roared and reached up with his long arms and began to pull himself up. Tessa quickly rolled away and spun, gyro-hopping into the air, to get herself off the ground and over the wall.

Tessa landed on the other side with a thunk, and Tori jumped down to get away from her brother. She slipped away from the wall just as the big gorilla fell down. He skidded to the side, almost going off the wide track, and barely managed to stop himself.

The track below them was ice!

Tori quickly turned into Forty Below and started to roll away, Tessa did the same in her Major Ruin form, and Tyler growled at them before transforming into Thermite, rolling after them.

Once they were past the ice, Tyler changed back into Chilla, and he bounded after them. Tori reverted to her normal self and sprinted away, jumping over hoops and through hurtles. In her fear, she overtook Tessa, and she ran face-first into yet another wall.

This time, she didn't have her rollie-polie sister to use as a boost. As the other two came charging towards her, Tori tried to scramble up the obstruction, but to no avail. Freaking out, she wished she could just become a puddle and melt away.

A blinding blue light flashed in front of the other two siblings, and Deep Blue now stood before them. Tori quickly shot her jets at them, drenching her brother's fur and momentarily stunning her sister.

Then, Tori had an idea. She aimed her jets at the floor and shot as hard as she could. The blast sent her soaring into the air, so high that she banged her head against the ceiling and was momentarily dazed. She lost control of her jets and fell to the ground, landing hard. Two of her tentacles snapped beneath her, the crack echoing through the room, and she let out a howl of pain.

Her siblings were on her in an instant, their anger and competitiveness forgotten.

"Tori, are you okay?" Tyler asked.

The girl whimpered, shaking her head, tears streamed from her blue eyes. Their eye color was the only physical trait that they kept during the transformations, and Tessa's blue-green eyes were filled with concern, while Tyler's were filled with woe.

"If I hadn't chased you, this wouldn't've happened," He growled, pounding a big fist on the floor, "This is all my fault."

Tori wanted to reassure him, tell him it was hers for goading him, but the pain was too great. It made her want to go home and cry forever. She reverted to her human form, and her left leg hung loosely.

Trainer K appeared at their side. "Training is over today. Go back to your hut. I'll take you to see the physician." He added to Tori, and bent down to scoop her up.

He carried the young girl out of the training room and across the small meadow, disappearing into another door. The siblings trailed behind him solemnly.

The gruff guard deposited Tori on a bed on the far side of the small, orange room and spoke to an orange fuzzy-fae. When he turned to leave, he notice the other two standing there. "Go back to your hut." He ordered, and the children reluctantly returned to their new home.

* * *

**Woah, 1,686 words in just a couple of hours, that's a new record! For me, at least. :) Well, I hope yall enjoyed this chapter, and that I broke my leg. *Derp face* Too clumsy for my own good, I guess.**

**Oh, and what do you think should happen next? Review your ideas, and we might put them in the story! Ta Ta for now!**


	5. Aftermath

**Disclaimer: I, obviously, do not own kameo or any of the references made to other products. The only things I own are the characters that I make up, and myself as Tori. Tessa and Tyler belong to Moondapple and Hawkfur. (Those are my sibling's warrior names) Arnold and Katie are our respective parents, so I guess they get credit for themselves. ? :\ ?**

* * *

_Darkness_.

All around them.

_Evil_.

Lurking in the shadows.

_Terror_.

Seizing their souls.

_Bars_.

All they can see.

_Why?_

Why did this happen?

_How?_

How is this possible?

_Safety._

Is irrelevant on this place.

_Fear._

Is all we know now.

A voice cackled from the darkness, low and alien. "Fools, both of you!" It hissed, "Tell me the secret! How can your children control the elemental sprites?"

_Tori, Tessa, Tyler,_

We must protect them.

"We told you already," The cracked voice of a woman answered, "We don't know!"

She huddled close to her husband, his dark hair and eyes invisible in the darkness. He held her close, curling his strong, muscular arms around her. Knowing what would come next, he defiantly faced the area where the voice was coming from and boomed, "Leave Katie alone! I'll take whatever punishment you have to offer!"

"No, Arnold," Katie grabbed at his shirt, her hazel eyes wide and luminescent in the darkness, "Not again, I can take it. Don't do this to yourself!"

"It's okay," He ran his fingers through her shoulder-length, light brown hair, "Don't worry, God will give me strength."

The screeching of the bars opening slowly signaled his time to turn away. He felt the chains around his legs open off, steam rising ominously from their open hinges.

"No!" She screamed and tried to leap after him, but the shackles tethered her to the floor, preventing her from moving.

Looking forlornly back at his wife, he took that last step out of the cage and into the blinding light.

* * *

Tori awoke to a strange room with bright orange walls. She had slipped into a fitful sleep sometime during the day, and the light filtering from under the door was now dark and purple. She rolled over, grunting as she sat up.

The room was practically empty, with only the bed and a dresser within. The bed was white, with long purple sheets that draped over the edges, and it was in the left-hand corner of the room. The brown dresser stood near the right wall. It faced the left wall, with space behind it for a person to walk.

Tori grabbed the silken covers and layed them gently aside, before swinging her legs over the edge of the bed. She winced as they banged together, painfully jolting her left leg.

"Ow!" She cried out, her eyes watering.

As if on cue, the door opened and a creature walked in. It stopped, it's big, golden eyes spreading wide. It loped towards her muttering, "No, no no! You're not supposed to be up!"

Tori froze, not registering the voice she heard as its, as the beast lumbered towards her, quick despite its large size. It closed the gap between them and swiftly bent down to take a hold of her leg.

Tori squealed and tried to tug it away, but the creature held it firm in its iron, clawed grip.

"Let go of me!" She shrieked, struggling to get away from the beast.

"Just please hold still," The creature asked kindly, and Tori stiffened, surprised.

The thing smiled, it's long face showing razor sharp teeth, closed its amber eyes, and started to hum. The sound was low at first before rising to a crescendo, and then going up and down like waves. The noise was calming, like taking a nice, hot shower, and Tori found herself slowly relaxing.

She closed her eyes for a bit as a tingling feeling ran along her left leg, and then opened them again to see the creature moving its hands carefully and intently around the circumference of her lower leg. Bright pink, blue, purple, and green lights spilled from its green, scaly hands and into her appendage, their colors dancing across her skin like the northern lights frolicked across the sky.

The thing started to slow down it's humming, going lower and lower in pitch until it was inaudible. Then, it opened its eyes and happily smiled. "That ought to do it!" It exclaimed, standing up.

Now that she wasn't freaking out, Tori could see how cool this thing looked! It was like a lizard, but human as well. It was bipedal, with protracted arms that extended into long-fingered, clawed hands. Light green scales covered its body, and it had a lengthy tail that thumped on the ground with extra energy. It did not appear to have legs, lending it a serpentine shaped bottom half. Long, open nostrils lined either side of its snout, and front facing eyes were erected on either side of its face. It wore a long-sleeved purple shirt that hung baggily off its frame, and a big wizard hat like those seen in Harry potter.

"What _are_ you?" Tori asked in awe, thinking that she should recognize the creature, but finding that she couldn't quite grasp what it was.

"Oh, sorry," It stumbled, "My name is Falgor, and I'm a Sargothan."

Tori nodded, and she tapped her foot on the floor. 'Bum-bum-bum bum. Bum-bum-bum bum. Bum-bum-bum bum.'

"Oh, I remember now," She exclaimed after a few moments of silence, "Your, like, the new mystic, right? What happened to the old one?"

Falgor averted his eyes. "We don't know. I think I'm the only one left now."

Tori felt a stab of pity pierce her heart. This poor creature was no beast; he was lost, just like she was.

"I'm sorry," She whispered.

"It's okay," He breathed, letting out a long sigh, "Nothing can be done about it, but your plight, we can try and fix that."

Tori looked up at Falgor's face, blue eyes wide. "How?"

* * *

Tessa and Tyler forlornly returned to the barren hut that they had to live in. Neither of them liked it, and the cot had been too small and the sheets too thin to keep them comfortable. The brown-haired boy's belly growled loudly, rumbling its complaints.

"I'm hungry," Tyler complained irritably. He was upset about how training had turned out. "Don't they have any food around here!"

Tessa couldn't argue, she felt like her stomach was trying to eat through her. She grimaced and replied, "Me too."

The two siblings trudged along the dirt path, the younger of the two kicking up stones bitterly. Tessa kept her glaring gaze at the floor, while Tyler just blatantly met every Elf's eye with a sharp scowl. The guards wrinkled their noses and growled like animals, and the fluffy creatures shied away with alarmed expressions. Tyler snorted at their reactions, still glowering.

Tessa was angry too, and she almost began to scream at them. The only thing that stopped her was the fact that her body smashed into a blue ball of fuzz. The blond girl lost her balance, stumbling for a moment, before regaining her footing.

"What the-" She exclaimed, shooting her hands out to the side.

"Oh!" A silvery voice exclaimed, "I am so sorry!"

Tessa's blue-green eyes alighted upon a slightly familiar face.

"HEY," She accused, pointing a finger, "Weren't you in our house?"

"I-uhh..." It stammered.

Tessa crossed her arms disapprovingly. "Uh-huh. What where you doing?"

"I was - uh - talking." The blue fuzzy thing stepped back, away from the annoyed girl with the aquamarine eyes.

"You were '- uh - talking' to who?" She mocked, knowing that the poor thing didn't deserve it, but not caring at the same time.

"I was t-talking to Tori." It fluttered its wings anxiously, looking over to a small plot of land with spiky plants.

Tessa grunted and kicked up some dirt. The fluffy thing sneezed.

"Well, I gotta go, goodbye." It rushed, flying away as fast as it could towards the plant field.

_Yeah, right._ Tessa rolled her eyes, crossing her arms and tapping her foot. "Come on Tyler," She grumbled, beckoning him with her hand.

They finished the rest of their walk in silence.

Once they had slammed the door to the desolate hut behind them, they heard angry shouts coming from outside.

"I _told_ you to get here _on time_!" The enraged voice barked.

"I-I'm sorry, I tried to-"

"I will have none of your excuses! You were told to get here by ten o' clock, were you not?"

"Ye-yes sir," the timid voice replied.

"Then you should get here by ten o' clock! Not ten o' five! NOW GET TO WORK! ONE MORE INFRACTION AND YOU'LL BE FIRED!"

Tessa ran over to the circular window, the big one on the left side of the house, not the small one by the door, and peered out of it.

The fuzzy creature she had yelled at was scrambling to gather all the materials it needed to plow the field and water the plants. It clumsily dropped the hoe, and the thin metal blade dug deep into the soil. The fuzzy creature bent down to retrieve it, a scared look in its eyes.

Tessa felt a tug of guilt at her heart. _This is my fault. Why did I have to be so rude?_

She started towards the door, but she pulled back. Going out there and distracting it now wouldn't do any good. She would wait until it had finished its job, go and apologize, and then explain what had happened to the angry blue farmer.

* * *

Tyler honestly didn't care about the things that lived here, not now, when it was their fault that his sister was hurt, his parents were gone, and his house was all but ashes now.

At first, the tan boy had thought it was cool, but then the cold, hard truth fell on his shoulders. It weighed down upon him like a boulder, awakening his hatred and fury.

They were going to lose. This wasn't just some video game or disney movie where the good guys always won. This wasn't a marvel tv show where bad things happened, but it would end up mostly good. This wasn't just a game. It was never a game. This was life. This was real, this was happening, and this was dangerous. He realized that now. They would never be safe. They would never be normal. They would never grow up like normal kids.

He let out a yell and punched the wall, bruising his knuckles.

It was their fault that Tori was injured, their fault that she had been here in the first place!

Tyler vowed right then and there that they would pay! Every last one of those monsters!

* * *

**Thank you for reading! And please review! Also, submit it your ideas for what you think should happen next or what we should do to improve the story on your reviews. They are greatly appreciated!**


	6. Sharp Things and Total Boredom

Tyler woke up with a start, perspiration rolling down him in large drops.

He'd had another nightmare about the trolls.

These terrors had plagued his sleep since the day of the troll attack, chasing after him with sharpened rods of steel, swords, clubs, and other weapons. The horrifying creatures pounded after the olive-toned boy relentlessly, grunting and growling like hungry crocodiles. Panic would seize his mind, and Tyler's imagination would only fuel the dreams. The night terrors would quickly escalate into total chaos, and the boy would have to stand by and watch while his parents were chucked into cages and forced to bear unspeakable punishments. Then, the trolls would turn back to him, charging forward with their scythes while he was glued in place. They would swing their terrible armaments at his head and then...

Tyler would wake up.

He tried in vain to slip back into slumber, but the images of his hauntings would flash across his vision, preventing him from accomplishing his goal.

Eventually, he lost all hope in the subject and decided to go to the training hut. He gingerly snuck past his sleeping sister, tiptoing painstakingly slowly until he cautiously slipped out the large door.

Taking in a deep breath, Tyler sighed in relief. The cool, dawn air tickled his nose and calmed his mind, and he could almost forget his dreams.

_Almost_.

Shaking his head, the youngest sibling set off down the dirt road, the light of the rising sun illuminating his path. He made his way to the training hut, thinking that some exercise would keep his mind off of things.

Once he arrived at the training building, he decided to run the course. After all, more practice couldn't hurt. It would only help him to get better at it than his sisters! And what is more satisfying than beating your siblings?

He trained and trained and trained, running and jumping, climbing and ducking, trying to expel the petrifying images that kept returning, dogging at him like mosquitoes.

When that didn't work, Tyler angrily resolved to move on to the punching bag. He furiously swung at it again and again, imagining that he was beating the crap out of trolls with his wild fists, when the sound of a slamming door erupted from behind him.

''Where the heck have you been, Tyler!" An enraged female voice roared.

He glanced to the side to see the red-faced figure of his sister, arms crossed and fists clenched.

"Hey," Tyler simply replied, not bothering with formalities.

"You little..." Tessa began, but was cut off by the thundering footsteps of Trainer K.

"Oh, your already here," the elf mumbled, seemingly annoyed and upset at their appearance, as if he had wanted something better to do. "Well then, because of your leader's absence, I will have to change my lesson plans," he droned monotonously, bored, "You will learn some hand-to-hand combat as well as how to wield the weapon of your choosing." The soldier stretched out his arm to motion towards a rack heavily laden with the wickedly sharp things.

Tyler took the opportunity to look the rack over. Clubs, maces, claymores, knives, arrows, longswords, katanas, battle axes, daggers, war hammers, short swords, spears, pikes, scythes, bows, assorted axes, and crossbows were some of the weapons he could name from the many medieval times games he had played, along with many others he could not.

He stepped forward to reach out for a sword that had caught his eye, casting a quick glance at the soldier to see if he would object. He didn't.

Dark against the glittering gold and silver, the blade stood out like a human among ghosts, opaque next to the seemingly transparent artillery. It glittered onyx, the deep black layered with many hues, like the feathers of a black bird. It's hilt was that of fine steel, wrought to a misty gray color and engraved with markings of ice.

It was the most beautiful thing he had every seen.

Tyler, half in his own world, barely registered Tessa shuffling forward to grab a white piece. She gingerly selected a supple elven bow, and raised it towards the light for a better viewing.

The bow was pure ivory, with ends that gently curved towards the user and then rounded outward again like the horns of a ram. Like Tyler's sword, it was minted with an intricate design, but the bow's pattern was one of graceful swirls of wind, rather than the sharp, jagged cracked fissures of ice.

"Wow," she breathed, taken aback by its beauty.

"Huh," Tyler said to himself, "That looks a bit like Robin Hood's bow."

She turned a quick, glowering glance at him and ran her fingers along the taut silver string. "And you would know, Tyler. You only ever _lived_ off of that show."

"I did not!" He retorted indignantly.

"Yes you did! You watched it, like, every day for months! Maybe even a year!"

Tyler growled, and felt his face getting red. He stomped his foot frustratedly and turned back to the weapons rack, struggling not to attack her with his fists. _Or maybe my sword would be better... _He thought to himself, and imagined bashing her face in with the flat end of the blade.

He selected a throwing axe from the rack - had always wanted a tomahawk - and fastened it to his training belt. It fit perfectly at his left side.

Tessa glared at him, obviously angry that he hadn't responded to her, and roughly grabbed a quiver of silver arrows and a wickedly curved dagger.

"Good," Trainer K grunted, spooking Tyler, who had forgotten the elf was there, "Now, both of you, take your places at the fifteen-yard line."

"Wait, wait, wait," Tyler raised his hands hotly, "We have to start at the_ fifteen yard line_! That's, like, a thousand feet away from the targets!"

Tessa looked inclined to agree with him, but Trainer K curled his lip, narrowing his gaze at the brown-eyed child. "No. It is not. That is a _meager_ fourty-five feet. The rest of your training will not be so easy."

"Easy! Meager! Are you insane!"

The elf swiftly covered the distance between them in two steps and grabbed Tyler by the collar, yanking him up into the air to meet the soldier's eyes.

"You WILL NOT insult me! You WILL NOT complain! You WILL NOT disobey orders! And you WILL NOT question how and what I teach! IS THAT CLEAR!"

"Crystal," he answered sharply.

The soldier thrust him to the ground. "Now get up and train."

Tyler stomped over to the line, pulled out his axe, and took aim. Tessa did the same with her bow.

As it was to be expected, they completely sucked. Neither of them had experience with any weapon beyond that of a b-b gun, and the upper-body strength of the latter wasn't nearly as strong as it could have been, the former only having a football advantage. But, with yelled directions and hours and hours of frustratingly painful time, they were able to hit the targets, and with even more time, they were able to hit fairly close to the bullseye.

It was just after sundown when Trainer K ordered them to stop, and the two siblings were dog tired. Their muscles ached, their heads hurt, and their throats were parched and dry. Without even a word of encouragement or a drop of water, they were shoved out of the training hut and into the cold night.

"Well, that was a waste of time," Tessa grumbled.

"Not a total waste," Tyler replied, pulling his black one-handed sword from the dark sheath Trainer K had given him during the day, "We got stuff."

"Yeah," Tessa fingered her bow, "I guess... I'm still tired, though."

"Yup. Let's get back to the hut." He answered quickly.

As they walked back in the dim light, the blond girl bitterly griped, "He worked us _way_ too hard! It's as if we're slaves!"

"I know, right? I mean, _fifteen yards_! For _beginners_! That's crazy!'

"And the way he _teaches_! He never says anything nice!"

They kept throwing logs in the fire, exchanging back and forth everything that they thought was wrong with Tranier K and the way he taught. Complaining about things was one of the few things that they could do without fighting.

Once they reached the hut, the two collapsed into the cot, not even bothering to change out of their gear.

* * *

The day after that was much the same. And the day after that, and the day after that, and the day after that... Training had become more of a monotonous drone than an activity to look forward to, and Tyler soon grew bored of it.

"What's the point," he groaned to Tessa as he hacked at a dummy with his sword, portending to block blows with his black shield, "They're never gonna let us _do_ anything."

"We might have to," she paused, "Someday."

"Yeah," he replied sarcastically, "_Someday_. When pigs fly!"

She shrugged, too tired to yell at him, and went back to stabbing the wooden man with her dagger.

A soldier burst in to the room, sweat lining his brow, and sprinted to Trainer K's side. He panted, out of breath, before gasping out a few words. "Attack...ice...shrine...trolls...need...reinforcements..." He bent over, unable to say any more.

Trainer K's eyes bulged, his face paled, and Tyler realized that their frustratingly annoying teacher was _scared. _He almost couldn't believe it.

"Well," the imposing soldier turned to them, momentary lapse of emotion gone, "Looks like you two will get to _do something_ after all."

Tyler whitened, the elf had heard them, but more importantly...

They were going to war.

* * *

**Hey guys! Sorry for the really, _really_ late update. School, other stories, and just stuff in general have kept me pretty occupied. Plus, Hawkfur and Moondapple have been quite busy as well. So, I hope you enjoyed this chapter, though it's more of a filler. There will be _a lot_ of action in the next one, though. I promise!**


	7. Slice & Dice

"You're gonna need something better than _that_ if you lot are gonna survive," Trainer K grumbled, "Come on, you! Into here!" He ushered them down a hallway - it had been adjoining the left side of training room the whole time - and through another large purple door.

Both children gawked at the entrance, taken by surprise at the sheer quantity of what lay within. The new chamber was large, though not as large as the training room, and filled with glittering, shining armor of all shapes, colors, and sizes. All of them were adorned with one carving or another, and several copies of each hung in separate racks.

The gruff soldier led them to two secluded sets, and handed them each one.

"Um, this won't fit me. It's too small," Tessa whined, holding up an ebony cuirass that was only just too skinny for her to fit through.

"This is for a girl! See!" Tyler exclaimed, pointing at the breastplate of the misty white piece he had been given.

"Then switch, you idiotic children! The only reason you're going to the battle is because you are the only ones here!" Trainer K bellowed, face red with fury.

The two children grumbled as they switched the armor and put it on over their training suits. The gleaming craftsmanship shimmered and fit perfectly, luckily.

Tyler looked over at his older sister. She looked bright in her clouded white armor. It was styled like the glass cuirass in skyrim, with a matching helmet, shield, boots, gauntlets and darker gray highlights. It's gray design was that of clouds and wind.

"Woah," she breathed, "This is _really light_."

"That makes two of us," he replied, scanning over his own armor. Minus the onyx color and cracked ice pattern, it looked just like the dragonscale armor in skyrim. Tyler thought it looked _awesome_! "I wonder why?"

Trainer K face-palmed. "It's magic, you eejits."

"Oooohhh," they said in usion.

He glowered at them, arms crossed, thick eyebrows set. "Just hurry it up! We don't have eternity."

"I'm goin, I'm goin," Tessa mumbled, yanking on her white boots.

Once they had finished putting on their new battle gear, Trainer K shoved them outside, down a short, descending path, and into a dark tunnel. They walked in silence for a bit, the air growing warmer and warmer as they traveled down stone steps, until the darkness around them receded and they entered into a familiar place.

The dungeon.

"Why're we here?" she asked, "I thought we were going to the battle."

"You are, but there's no way in the Enchanted Kingdom that you'll be able to get there on your lazy legs!" Trainer K huffed, grabbing their arms and leading them to the next room in the red-lit place.

It was occupied by many horse stalls, each stocked with supplies and hay, but only five of these stalls were currently occupied, hardly enough to serve an army.

Tessa spotted a jet black stallion with a brilliant white diamond in the center of it's forehead. She gasped and couldn't believe it. Her dream horse was real!

"He's beautiful," she breathed, walking up to the elegant creature and reaching out a hand for it to sniff. The stallion clearly liked her, nuzzling her palm as if there was something there."Why's he in here, and why're there only five horses in the stables? Are the other soldiers using the rest?"

The elf shook his head, grumbling to himself, before he growled, "We have more horses, but they're in the Forgotten Forest, not out in the field.." He crossed his beefy arms. "We usually buy and ship them here, but because of the _trolls_," he spat, "we didn't receive our shipment. These were found nearby, wild, but these two are fairly docile." He gestured to Tessa's black horse and one that Tyler was looking at.

Tessa looked over at her brother, he was stroking a rusted gold stallion and asked Trainer K where they could get saddles. She ignored him, thinking, _Stupid! They're right in front of you,_ and went back to petting her horse.

"What's his name?" Tessa asked eagerly, wanting to know.

"Whatever you want, I don't care!" Trainer K exclaimed, "Just hurry it up! The longer we wait, the more people who die!"

"Midnight," She whispered immediately after his outburst.

"Wildfire," Tyler said after a moment of thought.

"Yeah, yeah. Just get on 'em and follow me," the soldier ordered, hopping onto an already saddled bay horse.

Tessa immediately saddled up Midnight, having preformed it the process a thousand times, and led the dark stallion behind Trainer K. Tyler, however, had trouble with the task and fell behind, but he eventually figured it out and had his horse trot behind them.

"Go through that portal," The elf commanded, "And don't faint, you sissies, your vision will only black out for a moment."

"And where'll we go?" Tyler inquired sharply.

"The badlands."

"Again?!" Both children exclaimed.

"YES!" he boomed, "Now get moving!"

"Jeez, what a nice guy," Tessa mumbled as they followed him over to the magic-ringed portal well.

"Go," he ordered, sending Tessa in first.

Trainer K was wrong. Everything went white.

* * *

After several moments of horrifying whiteness, complete with a piercing white sound, their vison returned to them, and miraculously, they were still on their horses.

"Oww," Tyler moaned, placing a palm to his head.

"No kidding," Tessa remarked,"My head is killing me."

"Just forget your grumbling and GET MOVING! Time's a wasting!" Trainer K yelled, spurring his horse forward.

Tessa shook her head, trying to rid herself of the annoying, piercing knives that stabbed at her brain, and looked up. She gasped at the sight that unfolded before her.

The ground was smothered in trolls. There was no space in between the creatures, no where to attack, no where for them to break through the line. They were a rippling, seething mass of bodies, moving as a skin with horrible, writhing snakes crawling beneath. They grunted, groaned, and yowled in their furious, bellowing way, leaning forward and baring their long, misshapen fangs.

Tyler whistled, and fear lodged itself in the pit of Tessa's stomach. Fighting these guys on the video-game was jarring enough. Actually _doing_ it was another matter all together. She almost whimpered, realizing that they could actually _die_ here, and there were no re-spawns or do-overs to save them now.

Trainer K took a sharp intake of breath and murmured something inaudible, his eyes glued to a small mountain to the left of a path that led farther away and up an ice wall. A scrawny, exhausted group of soldiers tiredly fought on, their movements sluggish, their swords barely swinging, their backs barely guarding the already damaged Ice Shrine.

The shrine rose above the hoard like a towering pillar atop a luminous mountain, it's clear, cold colors beautifully crystalline amongst the chaos. It emerged from the snowy mountain in blue glass that caught the fragmented light, split into two lines halfway up to cradle a bubbly, white jewel, and then joined back together at the top of the egg-shaped gemstone to form a spear point. Tessa would have been awed had terror not had its grip so firmly clamped on his mind.

"What're _we_ supposed to _do_ against _that_!" Tyler screamed, his voice cracking into a high pitch, thrusting his hands accusingly forward at the mass of enemies.

Tessa just shook her head, silent for once in her life.

"CHAAAAARRRRGGGEEE!" Trainer K yowled the battle call, spurring his horse forward at full speed into the tumult.

Tessa didn't know what else to do. She followed.

* * *

Tyler, even though he had been wanting to do something like this, couldn't help feeling daunted. No matter how hard he tried to hide it and be macho, there was no denying the sheer size and power of the creatures before him.

He almost chickened out, but he was able to muster up the strength to move forward._ Just pretend you're in a video game. Just pretend you're in a video game_, he repeated in his mind.

With one last repetition, he kicked Wildfire's sides - causing the horse to snort in annoyance - and rode headfirst into the frenzy, trying to keep the rusted-gold horse's spike armored head down like he'd seen in the video game.

At first, the trolls merely parted in front of him like a wave, their bodies flinging left and right at he drilled through them, but then, they decided to get smart, and began to try and snag the olive toned boy off his horse.

Tyler was forced to wildly swing his ebony sword at them. He had never practiced fighting on horseback, but had seen enough of the fighting style on Skyrim to have an idea about what to do. The youngest sibling swung his dark weapon in an arc off to the side, and surprisingly, it split open the skulls of those it came in contact with like butter, sending their green blood spraying and their bodies a-fly.

Tyler, despite the gravity of the situation, laughed. He just _loved_ the feel of driving his icy blade into the troll flesh, and the burst of adrenaline it gave him was just _exhilarating_!

A troll ran up at him, brandishing a spiked club, roaring in rage. Tyler stabbed it in the chest with a wicked smile, twisting his blade like a corkscrew until green goo exploded from the body.

Another beast came at him, and the boy simply cut it in half, leaving it to a fate like Darth Mall's.

Suddenly, a scream erupted from across the horde.

Tyler's head jerked up. "TESSA!"

His sister was surrounded, her black horse rearing back and neighing as a circle of malicious, hunched trolls closed in around them. The blond girl was trying her best to hold them back, notching and shooting many arrows, but the poor child didn't have experience with using her bow on horseback, making the would-be weapons miss their mark and wiz harmlessly past their targets. Midnight's constant, frantic pacing didn't do anything to help the situation either.

Tyler quickly dealt a blow to a nearby troll before spurring his horse towards her. Thankfully, Wildfire had a mind to help his friend, and he didn't protest to charging over to help.

He slashed, swiped, gutted, and ravaged his way over to Tessa, trying to move as fast as he could, struggling to get to her through the heaving mass of beasts. The sound of cannon fire and cracking ice blasted from the nearby shrine, a loud boom echoing throughout the air, but none of it mattered. The only thing that mattered was getting to Tessa on time.

He almost didn't make it, and he trampled into the malevolent creatures just a second before they pounced on her, wildly swinging his sword, trying to hit every single one.

He heard Tessa sigh in relief, and the sound of her knife cutting through flesh joined the serrated crack of Tyler's sword as they fought together. Wildfire kicked and reared, Midnight jabbed with his horns, and the two siblings slashed at everything that came too close.

Many a troll came to a gruesome death by their inexperienced hands, suffering slow, painful deaths from randomly placed wounds. By the time the two began to grow tired, piles of warped bodies had formed around them, and enemies had to climb over the mounds to get at the children. Needless to say, they made easy targets for Tessa, and groans, moans, and howls came from those unlucky enough to get brutally pierced by her wicked silver arrows.

They fought and fought, determinedly struggling to survive, until it seemed like the massive resistance would overwhelm them. As a troll ran over the rise of bodies, Tessa notched her last arrow. The beast twirled back, arrow to the heart, exploded into a haze of flies. It was lucky enough not to be part of the miserable demons whose life was slowly draining out of them.

Another troll appeared, this one with a bow, a bow that's arrow was trained right on Tessa's head. Tyler, rage welling within him once again, catapulted his throwing axe. The silver-hilted, red-bladed weapon missed its mark, which was the trolls chest, and instead buried itself within the disgusting creature's leg, causing viscous green blood to explode from the wound.

Tyler slumped down in his saddle, exhausted. Tessa did much the same, but instead rested her head on Midnight's mane.

"What're we gonna do?" She whispered in defeat.

Tyler turned his brown eyes to her and simply said, "Fight."

She groaned and hugged Midnight 's blood-splattered neck. "I just wanna go home."

"We don't have a home!" He screamed, flinging his arm towards the mounds of dying trolls, "_They took it from us_!"

For once, she didn't retort, only looked at him with sad blue-green eyes.

"The only way we're getting out of here," Tyler said gruffly, "Is by fighting our way out."

He didn't wait for her to respond and steered Wildfire to the left, the way he had come. Backing the horse up, the boy tried to get it to jump over the bodies, but the stallion stubbornly reared up and refused to do so. Tessa tried her luck with Midnight, but the horse was too spooked to do nothing but stare.

"Fine," Tyler spat, "I'll do it myself." The enraged child jumped heavily off of his mount and charged towards the mound, transforming into Chilla to deal a crushing punch to it.

The wall held.

"RRRAAAHHH!" He bellowed, leaping over the pile with a face set on murderous intent, and he was about to charge ahead full force when he paused.

The trolls were retreating.

Tessa, in Major Ruin form, rolled up next to him and popped her head and legs from the shell. She gasped, though in relief or terror, he did not know.

The fields were empty, the troll hoard flooding towards the dark, looming castle between the two sinister lava mountains.

"They're retreating!" Tyler whooped, throwing a fist in the air, "We won!"

"NO WE DID NOT!" A deep voice screamed.

Tyler and Tessa's heads jerked towards the sound. It was Trainer K, riding down towards them on a battered horse, his armor ripped in so many places and his wounds bleeding profusely.

The elf rode up to them, sweat rolling off his body, his horse's tongue lolling. "Don't you get it?" He yelled at their stunned silence, "WE _LOST_! THE SHRINE _FELL_!" The soldier panted heavily after his outburst, and his eyes rolled up in his head as he plummeted from the side of his horse.

* * *

Somewhere, in a deep, dark, evil place full of horrific creatures, a malevolent usurper cackled, wringing its spined hands together.

"Yes," it crowed, "Stage one of my brilliant plan is complete! Soon, _nothing_ will be able to stop me!" The voice boomed in a low, dry pitch, rising and falling with the harsh tones of the words. The cloaked figure turned to a nearby troll. "You!" It commanded, and the nasty green beast immediately turned its attention to its master, "For you, I have a special undertaking." The hooded tyrant whispered its directions into the troll's ear. "NOW GO!" It suddenly roared, "Ready the Brutes! Ready the army! _Ready_. _Your_. _Bloodlust_!"

* * *

**Phew! 2,628 words! This is the second longest chapter I've written so far in my life! So, I hope yall liked it, and I apologize for the slow beginning. Moondapple insisted on getting a steed. :P**

**Also, I might have been a bit on the monotonous side during the fighting portion. I'm sorry about this, I was quite tired at the time and didn't have much inspiration.**

**Well, anyways, thank you all for reading my story, and please review! We absolutely _love _reviews!**


	8. Getting Back

Tessa squealed despite herself, and Tyler stood there in frozen shock. The girl quickly transformed back to normal and rushed over to the soldier's side. Sure, he was a jerk, but he was still a human being. Well, an elf being, anyway.

"Wait, what?" Tyler breathed, his dark eyes scanning the sky for the shrine. He too, had reverted back to human form.

Tessa paid no heed to him, too busy in what she was doing to really care at the moment. "Um.. Um," she stammered, looking for something to cover up the trainer's wounds. She had been to Heath class—as her past school had required—to learn first aid, but she'd never expected to actually _use_ the stuff she'd learned. "Come on, come on," Tessa murmured, running her hands along the ground, looking for a cloth or bandage, "There has to be _something_."

Sadly, the only fabric in sight was that of the troll's stinking uniforms, and Tessa wouldn't _dare_ try to use that to patch up Trainer K's wounds for fear of infection.

"We have to get him back to the castle," she told her brother, who had his eyes fixated on something in the distance. "Hey! Listen to me! We have to get him back!" She screamed at him, but he gave no response. "Fine! I'll do it on my own! I guess _you_ don't _care_!"

She stomped over to him, ready to slap him upside the head, when a dull glitter caught her eye. Turning, she gasped.

Just ahead of them, the shrine lay in ruins. Its beautiful white gem was shattered in a thousand pieces, the blue glass of the sides had been ripped off and lay in hunks around the desolation. The base of the shrine cut off in a ragged crown halfway, as if it had been knocked over by some powerful force.

Tessa choked, her eyes stinging. They'd failed. _She'd_ failed.

_All I ever do is mess things up_, she thought,_ I can't do anything right_.

She shook her head and rubbed her eyes before going back over to Trainer K. Then, the blue-green eyed girl started to drag him towards Midnight, and turned down Tyler's grunted offer of help. She could do this on her own. Tessa transformed into Ash so that she could more easily lift the heavy man, and she then placed him on the black horse's back.

"Come on," she muttered to Tyler, spurring Midnight towards the portal.

* * *

They made it back to the Enchanted Kingdom in one piece, and once they got there, Trainer K was hurried off to the infirmary.

Tyler wondered if the elf would see Tori there. The older girl had been gone for so long, it seemed as if she hadn't even been here with them at all. The boy silently prayed to God that both she and all of the other injured soldiers would get better soon because, though he would'nt admit it, he missed his sister.

"We better get back to the hut," Tessa said tiredly, derailing the boy's train of thought.

Tyler just nodded, not really in the mood for talking. They'd just get into another fight.

Trudging along the dirt path, they didn't really care much to look at the grace of their surroundings. The defeat had taken the spunk and energy right out of them. Their conviction seemed to drain as steadily as the sunset, for its red and orange colors descended upon them. A sight that once would have represented beauty, it only reminded the siblings of the Badlands more.

Tessa walked in behind Tyler and slammed the door. "Can you believe it!" she yelled, "It's been_ seven days_, and there's still nothing in here but that _stupid cot_!"

Tyler nodded, unwilling to talk or even complain. He just shuffled over to the far end of the little house and slid down the wall to sit on the floor. He placed his head in his hands and sighed.

_Why can't life just be simple_, he thought forlornly.

* * *

After a while of fruitlessly trying to engage Tyler in conversation, Tessa gave up and left the hut, remembering the incident that had happened days before.

She shuffled out of the dark hut and out into the dusk, hoping that the blue thing hadn't left his farm yet. The blond girl turned right and boldly stomped up to the farming field.

"WORK FASTER YOU STUPID TROLL!" A fat blue fuzzy thing yelled in a deep, booming voice.

The fluffy creature Tessa had seen before started plowing the brown field faster, it's fur damp with sweat. The poor thing looked so weak,—so exhausted—it seemed like it was pure miracle that kept it working.

Tessa curled her lip and snarled, "You treat him with respect or I'll burn you to ashes!"

The worker stopped working to watch as the fat thing jerked its head up to glare at her. "Don't you _dare_ disrespect me!"

She stormed over to the farmer. "Don't _you_ dare disrespect _him_!"

The winged tabby creature spat, "Who do you think you are?!"

"Tessa Lloyd, that's who!"

The thing cackled, it's bloated belly waggling disgustedly. "Your a nobody!" It then fixed her with a glowering scowl, "I'll do what I want, scum."

That did it. If Tessa was mad before, she was infuriated now. With a mighty roar, she transformed into Ash and smacked the brute with a powerful left paw. The fuzzy thing smacked into the hut wall with a thump. It's yellow eyes were wide with newfound fear.

Tessa pounded up to the thing and towered over it. "Now," she spoke in a honeyed tone, "You're gonna let this poor guy go, lower his work hours, and increase his pay—though I doubt you even paid him in the first place. Or else you'll be burnt to a crisp." She opened her gaping, tooth-lined maw and snapped her jaws menacingly.

The fat farmer nodded in terror and backed up against the wall, but made no move to stop his slave.

"I'm waiting!" Tori growled.

"Okay! You're free to go, Alistair!"

Alistair looked up at Tessa with amazed green eyes. "Thank you," he breathed, "Thank you so much!"

Tessa shifted back to normal and smiled. "No problem." The fluffy guy bent down to pick up the plow, and Tessa ordered, "Leave that. You boss will get it, _right_." She turned back to the fat thing and glared.

"Yes, yes! Of course!" It stammered, getting up and going over to the tools.

Alistair covered his mouth with a hand and pointed, obviously suppressing giggles. This was probably the first time the stupid jerk had been put in his place.

Alistair, with one last thank you, flew off down the dirt track and behind the other side of the castle. Tessa watched him go with a smug look on her face before she walked back into the hut.

Tyler was still ignoring her, so Tessa decided to slump down on the cot and go to sleep. Her brother soon joined her, and she drifted off quickly.

* * *

Tyler dreamed in a dark haze. The images were blurry and obscured, but they were still there.

_Darkness enveloped his vision, and a red fog coated the floor. Tyler took a step forward, unsure of what was happening. A dry, crackling voice rang out from the shadows._

"Ready the Brutes! Ready the army! Ready. Your. Bloodlust!"

_The boom of the voice sent Tyler skidding backward, and he slammed against the cold bars of an iRon cage._

"NOOOOO!" _Another voice called, this one feminine, and Tyler's brown eyes found the blurry form of his mother._

"You can't do this!" _The sound of his father's words met the boy's ears._

"I can do whatever I want, fools!" _The rusty voice exploded from the darkness, it's shape indistinguishable from the gloom._

Before Tyler could say or do anything, he was jerking up from the bed with a gasp.

* * *

**Sorry for the late update. Again. I accidentally deleted chapter 3 and I had to rewrite it before we could finish this. This chapter's a bit short, but I hope it was okay enough. If yall have any ideas about what will happen next, please review them. **

**Questions Of The Chapter: Why do you think Tyler is having these dreams? What role do you think Alistair will play?**

**Thank you for reading!**


	9. Surprise Visit

The next morning wake-up was a bit of a rush. Tessa and Tyler had been abruptly woken by a haggard, annoyed guard and quickly shepherded off to the Training Room as soon as they had pulled on their gear.

Tyler half expected Trainer K to be standing there with his arms crossed and lip curled, looking at them disappointedly due to their failure the day before, but a normal-looking—though slightly skinny—guard awaited them instead.

"Hello," he greeted, holding out a hand awkwardly, "My name is Carnell."

"Tyler," the olive-skinned boy replied as he quickly shook Carnell's hand.

"And I'm Tessa," his sister answered as well, shaking the elf's hand after her brother.

"Good, now that we all know each other, let's get to training," Carnell said, leading them over to the back of the room. "Today, you will learn how to control the elemental sprites. Tyler," the elf ordered in a light tone, "Turn into Chilla and climb this ice wall."

The boy nodded exuberantly and transformed into the cold gorilla. He then went over to the wall and paused, trying to remember how Kameo had climbed ice walls in the game.

"Pull out two spikes from your back and use them to climb," Carnell said at that moment, answering Tyler's thoughts.

The brown-eyed boy did as he was told and reached back to grab two icy protrusions off of his back. It tickled a little as he pulled them out, but it wasn't painful. The problem was climbing up the vertical wall. It took all his strength to drive the spikes into the thick ice and pull himself up on them. When he tried to yank the left spear out of the wall so that he could go higher, he found it to be firmly lodged within the ice. With a grunt of frustration, he jerked it out of the solid water and found himself to be out of energy. He then hung there with his left arm dangling.

"Wow," Tessa scoffed, smirking in that irritating way that always made him mad, "the mighty Tyler has done it again,"

In response, Tyler sighed in annoyance and retorted, "And the self-important Tessa has said something incredibly stupid yet again."

"Uugghh!" She growled, stomping her foot angrily and glaring at him.

"What," he answered, dropping to the ground with a sneer, "It's the truth. Did you expect me to lie?"

"I hate you," She said bluntly.

"So," Carnell spoke up, obviously nervous,"Tessa, you turn into major ruin and go up that ramp."

They hadn't even noticed that there was a huge ramp nearby—technically to the diagonal right of them—until now. It was bright orange, with a yellow stripe that ran down the middle, and it seemed to go out and up on a forty-five degree angle.

"Piece of cake," She answered, trying to sound brave but still looking doubtful by eyeing it in a slightly nervous way.

She turned into major ruin and hesitated for a moment before rolling over to the base of the ramp. She then closed her blue-green eyes and took a deep breath. After another semmingly endless moment, she was spinning in a blue cyclone and heading up the slope.

Halfway up the ramp, Tyler, none too quietly, whispered, "fail." At that exact moment, she veered off course, sending her over the edge to crash gracelessly to the floor.

"So let it be said, so let it be done," Tyler jeered mockingly, wearing a proud smirk on his countenance.

"You're lucky that didn't hurt," Tessa snarled, eyes aflame, "Or I woulda-"

"Well, then," Carnell suddenly exclaimed, clapping his hands together, "I guess that's enough of that for today! Why don't we try moving on to something simpler?"

With an exasperated sigh, the blond girl groaned, "Fine."

Tyler just shrugged in response. It's not like he wanted to keep doing something he wasn't good at.

The soldier led them over to the all-too-familiar targets and had Tessa morph into Ash. She shot fireballs at her target, while Tyler heaved ice spikes at his. It took some adjusting, but the action was basically just like throwing a long axe. Tessa had less luck, however, due to having to use her face and breath instead of her arms, but she eventually got it as well.

After a few long, boring hours or so of doing this, the training room doors opened dramatically to announce a guest.

"Oh, bother," the new arrival moaned, putting a delicate-looking hand to her temple, "Is _this_ what you've been teaching them?"

None other than Queen Kameo had graced them with her not-so-welcome presence.

"Oh-uh-your majesty!" The new trainer stammered, falling to the ground in a bow.

"Well," she continued as if he had never answered, "is it?"

"Y-y-yes, your majesty."

"Well, this is horrid. I will take over their training for today. You may leave." She dismissed him with a curt wave of her hand.

He bowed once again before shuffling out the door, leaving the two siblings alone with the queen.

_Oh crap,_ thought Tyler, _we're dead._

As if seeming to read his mind, Kameo fixed him with a steely green glare. "Is there something you would like to say, boy?"

He shook his head. "No ma'am."

"I thought so. You!" She suddenly ordered, pointing at Tessa, "Attack me."

"Uhh..." The girl stood there, dumbfounded, not really knowing how to respond.

"I said, ATTACK ME!" The queen yelled, brow furrowing with distaste.

Tyler was starting to see the similarities between her and Trainer K.

"O-okay," His sister shakily replied, lighting up in a pale blue-white flash and becoming Pummell Weed. She took a wary step forward and attempted a test jab. Kameo dodged it easily.

"Actually _try_, girl!" The dark-haired woman snapped.

Tessa retaliated with another strike, but this time it was fast, anger-fueled, and only narrowly missed its target.

"Better, but you have to be faster than _that_ if you're ever going to amount to anything," The tattooed woman growled.

This remark made Tessa even more furious, and the mock fight was soon a whirl of fists and dodging. Tyler was enjoying this at first, but a million incredibly rude remarks later, he was beginning to become angry as well.

_If she opens her stupid mouth one more time, I'll rip her tongue out!_

"Do you even know _how_ to punch, blondie?!"

That did it. With a furious bellow, Tyler charged. The woman, with her back to him, was caught off guard and pummeled to the floor. He raised a gigantic fist to punch her in the face, but instead of a look of horror, the queen had glinting eyes and a perfect half smile on her Barbie-doll face.

"What," Tyler growled, confused but still angry.

Her grin widened. "Nicely done. Now get off me!"

The boy reluctantly let her go, and she gracefully stood up and brushed off her dress.

"Good. You have already learned that fighting together is needed when facing a superior enemy, but what you lack is actual combat skills. Tessa," Kameo ordered again, and the tan girl jerked her head to indignantly look the middle-aged woman in the eye, "In yesterday's battle, what was the first thing you did?"

"I followed Trainer K and shot at as many trolls as I could."

"Ahhgh," Kameo sighed, putting a hand to her temple again, "That was your first mistake."

"And then the trolls cut me off from him, and I got surrounded," Tessa continued as if the queen hadn't spoken.

"What do you think went wrong," the black-haired woman boredly asked, exasperation seeming into her voice.

"There were too many trolls, so I got surrounded," his sister snapped, putting her hands on her hips in frustration.

Tyler thought Kameo's question was stupid, Tessa had already told her what was wrong with the situation.

But yet again, the queen had an answer that aggravatingly made sense. "The problem was that you didn't have any battle experience and charged right in. If you had flanked the army, you could have made your way through on the fringes of their defenses, thereby avoiding capture and protecting you from being surrounded."

Tessa looked about to argue, but the glint in her blue-green eyes showed that she saw Queen Kameo's logic as well.

"Now, try and attack me again, but this time, work as a team," the woman ordered, getting in a defensive stance.

Tyler exchanged a glance with Tessa before transforming into Rubble and yelling, "Punch my rocks at her face!"

Tessa gave him a half smile and scooped up a spiked rock from him. She tossed it into the air with one Pummel Weed hand and swung the other like a bat to send the projectiles flying towards the lady. It all took place in a matter of seconds, and Kameo was caught off guard. Several rocks smashed into her, and Tyler called those that missed back to him.

Tyler silently thanked the Lord that Tessa played softball.

That strategy worked for a little bit, but the queen soon adapted and was dodging the rocks every time. She started moving closer to them, and when she was almost upon them, the two siblings started to panic.

"THROW MEEEEEE!" Tyler heard Tessa scream. She had changed into Major Ruin when he wasn't looking.

He felt sweat rolling down his face as he tried to comply. He turned into Chilla just as Kameo got to them, and reflexes acted before the brain. His arm flew up, and the green-eyed woman was sent flying from a powerful uppercut.

The queen crashed into the wall and slid down, but she didn't let out a sound. The lady even easily stood up and brushed off her clothes again as if nothing had ever happened.

"Good," she stated crisply, "We'll work on your technique tomorrow." With that, she turned toward the door to leave, but before she walked through, she turned around and said, "And by the way, your sister will be returning to training tomorrow."

* * *

**Hey guys, sorry for the really long wait. I've been having trouble writing lately, as probably evidenced by this boring chapter. I'll try and do my best to fill in the gaps better after Hawkfur and Moondapple give me the chapter skeleton, and to actually update on time. **

**Again, I am_ sooooooo _sorry, and if you have any ideas for what should happen next, they are greatly appreciated. Once Tori gets back, we plan on writing less training chapters and more action/mission chapters, but ideas for what should happen now would be absolutely amazing! Please review! :D**


	10. Guess Who's Back?

The day after the two younger children's training with Kameo, Tori walked in to the old hut tentitavely, worried that she might accidentally disturb whatever it was that Tessa and Tyler were doing. They were, of course, just sitting on the cot and staring off into space.

"Um, hey guys," the blue-eyed teenager stammered, "What's up?"

Tyler looked up at her with a confused look and a raised eyebrow. "You did _not_ just say that."

She shrugged in response and came over to sit beside him. "So, what's been going on?"

"Oh, we've only been working our butts off and almost _died_!" he huffed sarcastically, anger and frustration laced in his voice.

Tori paused, not knowing how to respond to that. "Oh, I'm sorry..." She trailed off and stared into space, thinking about her own easy time in recovery.

"Soooooo," Tessa suddenly said, scooting over to sit by her sister, "What did _you_ do over the week?"

The brunette fiddled with her hands and looked around the room for something she could use to show them. A crumpled sheet in the corner of the room, which appeared to have been thrown, caught her eye. She pointed at it and said, "Watch the blanket."

Her sister gave her an odd look that said, 'Oh, great, she's lost her mind,' but she didn't protest.

Tori ignored her and closed her eyes, trying her best to concentrate. Falgor had said to imagine lifting the object and having it float to where she wanted it to go, but that strategy hadn't exactly worked for her. Instead, she envisioned a griffion flying over and grabbing the sheet in its talons. She then had the mind-griffon fly the sheet up and over their heads. She made it fly to the very top of the hut, hover for a few seconds—long enough to hear Tessa gasp—and drop the sheet.

"AHHH!" Tessa squealed, flailing about underneath the object that had just moments ago suddenly descended upon her, prompting Tori into laughter.

"What was that?!" Tyler exclaimed, eyes wide.

She caught her breath before replying, "Just some magic that Falgor taught me."

"Who's Falgor?" her sister asked, now free from the sheet.

"He's the new mystic," Tori answered, "And he taught me more than just that cool trick." She smiled sneakily. "Which one of you wants to be Percy Jackson?"

Tessa said, "Wait. What?" But Tyler replied with, "Sure, okay."

Tori nodded and closed her eyes again, only this time, she imagined that the boy was on a canvas. She drew in the details of his perspective with her mind, moving her hand through the air like a paintbrush: the tanned skin, the black hair, those sea green eyes, the few visible scars from past battles, and barely noticeable laugh lines.

When she opened her eyes, sixteen year-old Percy Jackson sat next to her. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Tessa's mouth agape.

"What?" The Tyler-turned-Percy asked, his voice even different, "Do I look funny?"

The blonde girl just screeched and threw her shoe at him.

"Hey!" He snapped, rubbing his now bruised arm, "Wha'd you do that for!"

His eyebrows were furrowed in anger, and his face was turning red. It seemed that Tori could change his appearance all she wanted, his personality would alter the veil and show through anyways.

Instead of let them fight, she grabbed her brother by the arm and led him over to a reflective window. He gasped when he saw his reflection, and Tori waved her hand to dissolve the image.

"I can make you guys look like someone else. Falgor even taught me how to make us invisible or look like inanimate objects," Tori said, happy to share what she knew.

"Well that's just plain creepy!" Tessa objected, rubbing her arms like she wanted to make sure they were still there.

The other girl shrugged. "I find it cool, and that's not all that I know how to do. I can heal most wounds and—"

"THERE'S AN ATTACK ON THE FIRE VILLAGE!"

"EVERYONE TO THEIR BATTLE STATIONS!"

The color drained from the three's faces at the sound of the booming voices, and a cold feeling of dread wormed its way into Tori's heart. She froze, not knowing what to do. She would leap into a fight to save her siblings in a heartbeat, but this was another situation altogether. She'd be risking her life for people she didn't know, and her mixed emotions raged within her. On one hand, selfish survival instincts told her to hide and avoid the fight, but on the other, God and the Bible said that you should love your neighbor as yourself. Didn't that good principal apply to creatures from other worlds as well?

Tori sighed and pushed away her thoughts of staying behind. _Okay God_, she prayed,_ I'll do it. Your will is greater than mine. Just...please keep us safe, and if it is what You want, help us to win this battle without a ton of people dying._

* * *

Everything moved so fast, Tori barely had time to register it all. First, they shoved on their training suits. Then, they were hurried through the Training Room and into a chamber full of armor. While the other two shoved on their protective articles, she quickly chose a crystal blue set from a rack in the back. It was shaped like Oblivion's amber armor, and Tori immediately liked it. The protective apparel combined two of her favorite things—blue and the best-looking armor set in Oblivion, at least to her.

After they left the room, a guard ushered the long-haired girl over to a weapons rack, and she quickly chose six wickedly sharp, long knives. Two of them she secured at her hips, two more were carefully hidden in her boots, and she used a little bit of creativity with the location of the last ones. Instead of just holding them, Tori ran over to Falgor before they left and asked him to use magic to secure them to her gauntlets at the wrist. The spell cast on them would enable her to sheathe and unsheathe the two knives at will, thereby making them undetectable when sheathed within her armor.

When a baffled Tyler asked her what on earth she had done that for, she replied with, "Now I can punch and stab stuff at the same time!"

What she didn't tell him was that she had secretly tucked a small dagger into her undergarments. The older girl figured that if they were captured, she'd have something to fight with that would be pretty much imperceptible, and if anyone tried to search her _that_ thoroughly, they'd get socked in the nose.

"_Come on_," Tessa groaned as they neared the dungeon, "We have to _hurry up_!"

With that said, Tori was reminded of her battle inexperience. Her stomach got that falling, twisted knot being stabbed by knives feeling that it got whenever she went to the doctor's office. Her mind filled with doubt, and images of painful deaths and horrible injuries filled her mind. She didn't know if she was ready for war.

If she wasn't ready, the world didn't care. Tori was shoved into the dungeon, plopped on the back of a random bay horse, and sent through the dungeon portal. The world around her went white for a second before everything came back into focus. The light brown haired girl didn't even have time to shake away the brain fuzzies before she was riding off at top speed.

The three of them were led straight towards a mountain that was streaked with lava. It's burnt black surface glistened with the thick of it, and a river of red sat atop its flattened peak. A steel hat topped it and made walking above the bubbling cauldron possible, though Tori couldn't imagine anyone that wasn't_ crazy_ ever wanting to. An armada of trolls surrounded a chiseled arch of stone that led inside of the mountain. Booming shouts, the clangs of metal, war cries, and screams exploded forth from the tunnel, and the icy sword of fear pierced Tori's heart. She almost reigned in her horse and sped off when they charged head-first in to the horde, but she remembered her promise to God and rode on.

It was odd, she thought as trolls flew left and right before her, how easily the foul creatures were cast aside. They flew like ragdolls, leaving behind splatters of goo wherever they went. Tori didn't even get the chance to use her knives before the group made their way inside, where the battle was much thicker—and worse.

Before she even knew what was happening, her horse screeched in pain, and she was falling. Immediately grisly, disgusting bodies closed in on her. They punched and pummeled her into the floor, and Tori was powerless to stop them. She tried her best to kick and jab her way out of their grasp, but she was met with no avail. When one particularly nasty troll kicked her in the shin, she remembered the knives she had at her disposal.

Willing the two weapons to unsheathe from their hiding place, Tori punch-stabbed with renewed vigor. At first, only a few of the green beasts dropped with life-draining shank wounds, but her randomly-placed blows soon felled many trolls. Within minutes, the blue-eyed girl was covered in dying enemies, and no more opponents came to attack her.

The eldest sibling decided to play dead. After all, the dead people were always ignored in battles—or at least they were in the movies.

The strategy worked, surprisingly. Tori was able to wait in hiding until she heard footsteps—_gigantic_ footsteps. When she jumped out of the pile with her knives at the ready, they harmlessly glanced off the thick hide of the gargantuan creature that had its scaly back to her.

It turned around, opened its gaping maw, and loosed a ground shaking roar.

Tori didn't know that to do. What stood before her could only be described as a monster straight out of the worst nightmare imaginable. The dragon-like beast was at least fifteen feet tall—as tall as an African elephant—and covered in large, thick scale plates. The giant scales even had scales, but these were smaller and overlapped one another like impenetrable chainmail. The creature's body was splotched red and black, and it glared down at her with maddened black eyes. The piercing yellow ring within those dark orbs fixated itself upon Tori's frozen form, and it clacked its chops menacingly, showing off its under-bite and spear-like, jutting teeth that stuck out of its upper and lower lips like a crocodile's. A long tail reared up behind the thing's head, poised to strike like a scorpion, complete with a flattened end and three, triangle-forming barbs. A pair of stubby, malformed wings protruded from the behemoth's backside, and overly large, muscled, troll-like, and meaty arms hung at its breast, causing it to be front heavy. Dinosaur-like, backwards-kneed legs kept the monster from falling, and it's fangs and hooked claws were crimson, as if permanently stained by the blood of its prey. It threw its head back in a bellowing growl, its curling ram's horns glinting in the firelight, and at that moment, the creatures only weakness was revealed: its fleshy, sickly green underbelly.

Tori seized her chance and stabbed it.

The monster howled, rearing back and waving its arms around wildly. Green blood oozed from the wound, but it was not a mortal one. With a black look of pure hate, the creature whirled upon the girl and punched her across the room. She smashed into a rock wall, and all of the breath was knocked out of her.

As she sat gasping for air, the trolls in the cave started advancing upon the group of soldiers that had formed ranks around the remaining villagers. The group had a lava pool at their backs, burning houses at their sides, and an army of murderers with a nightmare in tow ahead of them.

They were trapped.

_Come on, come on!_ Tori thought, still trying to get some air back into her lungs. She was a sitting duck, helpless if anything noticed her and came her way. The only thing protecting her was her dented crystal blue armor, and it glistened in such a way that she was bound to be noticed because of it.

With a sudden gulp of air, she screamed, "SHOOT IT IN THE STOMACH!"

She saw Tessa's white-clad form notch an arrow and let it fly. The projectile struck true, and the draconic creature howled in pain and doubled over. Tori sighed with relief, but her alleviation was short-lived, as the monster roared and led the charge forward in an enraged frenzy.

They were going to die.

Tori knew that there was only one way she was going to save them, but the risk was great. She guessed that she had a ten per cent chance of it working, and a ninety percent chance of getting herself killed. But if she didn't try, there would be no chance of her brother and sister surviving.

She got to her feet and readied herself. Summoning every ounce of strength and willpower she had left, Tori thrust her hands out in front of her, imagining a flood rushing out of them. Electrified water burst out of her palms and engulfed the troll horde, coating every last one with the super-charged liquid. They howled, cried out, and screamed in pain, falling to the ground in writhing mass of green. Even the monster faltered and froze, caught within the throes of jolting pain, which gave Tessa sufficient time to loose enough arrows to take it down.

Tori heard the soldiers shout out a renewed battle cry and saw Tyler rush forward to slash at the weakened trolls before black spots covered her vision and she thudded to the floor.


	11. Wrecked

**Hey guys! Soooooo sorry for the _really_ late update, but our idea wells were just not working for what should happen in the immediate future of the story. Plus, I've been busy with homework and Greyleaf's Journey, Moondapple keeps lurking in her room-reading all the time-and Hawkfur just couldn't muster up the ability to write much, so it kind of made for slow writing. Sorry that this chapter isn't near as long as some of the others, but we'll try to make the next one better.**

**Also, we're gonna start answering reviews up here!**

**CraftyMaelyss:**

**Spiritfrost(me)- YAAYY! Thank you so much! I'm so glad you like it! **

**Moondapple- Man, I don't know what to say, (except that Spiritfrost did most of the work) and I really like it that you enjoy our story.**

**Hawkfur- I don't do fanmail **

**Spiritfrost at Hawkfur: Soooo, apparently Hawkfur won't be answering reviews :P **

**Mondapple at Spiritfrost: Or he's just being cool.**

**Hawkfur at both: Shut up.**

**Guest:**

**Spiritfrost- I think you might mean Tori, but Tessa will get some cool abilities too! XD And I'm so glad that you like the techniques I'm introducing! Hawkfur actually said to me the other day that this should be made into a sequel to the video game, so you two are on the same mind track! As to Kameo: yes, I did change her personality a lot, but there's a valid reason behind it, which will be hinted in this chapter.**

**Moondapple-You're my new favorite! :) :) :) :) :) :) But wasn't I awesome before? (and your fave too) Thanks for reading! I'll get a cool powers, though. (or power)**

**Hawkfur Spiritfrost: Well, I might answer some of them.**

**Moondapple at Hawkfur: Or all...**

**Hawkfur: Nope**

* * *

Tyler, with a group of knights and townsfolk, huddled around Tori's unconscious form. She hadn't woken for hours, but the fire village inhabitants had taken good enough care of her. The brunette groaned and rolled over, reaching a hand to her head.

"Oooohhh," she moaned, "My _head_...Does anyone have some ibuprofen?"

Tyler chuckled, and Tessa giggled. Their sister must think that they just carried it with them wherever they went.

"No," the olive-toned boy replied, "We don't have your suitcase of a purse."

She swatted a weak hand at him, mumbling something unintelligible, before falling asleep once again.

"She's going to be okay," said one of the fire village inhabitants in its high, bug-like voice, "Sleep is what she needs."

The boy nodded and got to his feet, surveying the wreckage around them.

One their monster had been destroyed, and their legions crippled, defeating the trolls had been simple enough. After slaying the beasts within the cave, Tessa had galloped out of the fire village to gather reinforcements, and with their added help, the battle was now easily won. However, it was not a victory without losses. Many guards and fire village inhabitants had died, and there were now countless orphans and widows among them.

Tyler watched as one of the little red people bent down to cry over their fallen family member, the bright yellow orbs on the ends of its two antenna dimming with grief. It's lava-cracked patterned skin changed from orange-red to dark black, and its three-fingered hands clutched those of the deceased. The large, yellow eyes of the villager were closed, and it's beak-like mouth was set in a hard line.

Tyler had to look away, tears forming in his eyes, because the emotion of loss was so strong.

Instead, he diverted his attention to the ruins around them. Every single lava rock home had either crumbled or been harmed in some way. The tightly wedged rocks had once been secured by mortar, but now they lay in pieces all around them. Tyler had stepped on one once, and he had yelled at the sudden pain before angrily kicking the rock away.

"Do you think we did okay?" It was Tessa's voice, her model-like form beside him.

The brown-eyed boy snorted. "I think we almost blew it."

She said no more, her presence leaving his side.

Tyler sighed, sinking to the ground in a sitting position, his arms propped up on his knees. _Why can't things ever go right for us?_

He sat there for some time, he didn't know how long, overlooking the wreckage around him. It would take a long time for the fire village to recover from this.

_A very long time._

The shrill squeak of metal on metal sounded from the cave entrance, and Tyler's head jerked up towards the sound, his brown bangs covering his hooded eyes as he glared at the newcomer.

It was Queen Kameo, your highest majesty of_ lazy_, _know-it-all_, _stupidness_. She sat astride a beautiful white steed with a flowing gold mane, donned in the finest blue linen apparel as if mothering was amiss. Her long, sinuous dress settled perfectly across the horse's flank, and she was adorned in only the first-rate gold circlet, bands, necklace, and rings. She strutted in with her head held high, looking down her nose at the people and ruined city.

With and aggravated sigh, she said, "Oh, dear. Just _think_ of all the gold this will cost to fix!"

Rage boiled up in Tyler, threatening to overflow, and _he let it_.

"How _dare_ you say that!" he exploded to his feet, screaming at her, "Do you know what these people have been through! What we've been through!" He stormed up to her and the horse, drawing his sword. "Tori almost_ died_, and you have the _nerve_ to whine about it!"

By now, he was aggressively in the elf's face with sword pointed under her neck, the soft skin being pricked by the icy black blade. Kameo lifted her head away in disgust, green eyes narrowing down at him.

"I have _every_ right, boy," she hissed, her voice dangerously low and quiet.

Tyler growled, face going redder in his rage. "Were _you_ the one fighting out here! Were _you_ the one risking your life! _No!_ So what right do you have!"

Kameo swiftly kicked him in the stomach, sending the boy thumping to the dirt. She got off her horse and bent down in front of him, kicking away his sword and lifting his head to her eyes. They pierced Tyler like daggers, icy cold weapons of vengeance.

"This is _my_ kingdom, _my_ home, _my_ land, and if you think you can come _tromping around_ through it, _disrespect_ me, and give _me_ orders, you are sorely mistaken. Shut up now, _boy_, before you say something you will regret." She rose to her feet, mounted her horse, and left the area before Tyler could even blink.

"AAAAAAHHH!" Tyler screamed, hurling a rock at the place she was nearly a second ago. "STUPID COWARD!"

He stood there, seething, his chest heaving, and lobbed more spiteful insults after her, even though he knew she couldn't hear him. With a final scream, he threw himself at a wall and violently punched it, imagining it was Kameo's face he was bashing in.

Exhausted, he fell to his knees with his eyes closed and leaned his forehead against the wall for support, panting heavily from the exertion.

"She wasn't always like that, you know," a small voice said.

The boy opened his brown eyes, looking to the right to see a woman of the village standing there. Sweat dripped down into his vision, and he had to blink to remove the liquid.

The yellow-eyed villager continued, her beaked mouth croaking out the words from a flame-parched throat. "Queen Kameo used to be kind and fair, but something horrible happened to her. It's not her fault she is the way she is."

"That doesn't give her the excuse to treat others like crap," Tyler spat, remembering Bluestar—the Thunderclan leader from Erin Hunter's warriors books, whom he despised for the rude and unfair actions she had taken.

"No one ever asks for sadness," the villager whispered, disappearing into the darkness of the cavern.

_No one ever asked for her to be a jerk_, he retorted in his head.


	12. Medic

**Hey guys! I am sooooooooo insanely sorry for not updating in forever! I've been having writer's block, and the siblings wouldn't write anything, sooooooo... yeah... I will answer reviews now...**

**CraftyMaelyss:**

**Spiritfrost- Yay! I'm so glad you love that! XD And yeah, I'm pretty stuck for ideas at the moment. I couldn't even get Moondapple to write a chapter in her POV, so I had to do something random in my own. And Ooooooh! YYAAYYY! That _does_ help! Thank you so much! If you have any suggestions as to what you think we should do with those characters, feel free to review them! :D**

**Moondapple- Can you help me come up with ideas for chapters from my point of view? Thanks for reading our story, I'm glad you like it!**

**Hawkfur- 'Sup. Cool.**

**Spiritfrost at Hawkfur- *Rolls eyes***

**JinndrahvMonkey:**

**Spiritfrost- Awesome! XD I'm happy for you! I was once the same way, and it was so amazing when I finally got my own account. :D And thanks! Yall are such a huge help! XD**

**Moondapple- I'm glad that you like our story, well will be very happy for any suggestions that you have for the story and will put them all to mind. We will try to update chapters more often.**

**Spiritfrost at Moondapple- Then you better get to writin'! I can't do _all_ of the work, :P because then it isn't a collaborative project! ...and she isn't paying attention.. XD **

**Hawkfur- Well, you will get MOARRRRR!**

**Spiritfrost at Hawkfur- Then I expect you to do the same as Moondapple, brother!**

**Hawkfur at Spiritfrost- Deal with it.**

**Spiritfrost at Hawkfur- XD :P ... But I'm not kidding...**

**_ANYWAYS!_ Before this becomes never-ending... ON WITH LE CHAPTER!**

* * *

"Ooooohhh, my _head_…"

Tori blinked open her eyes and raised a palm to her face, wishing she had thought to bring her purse with her. She wasn't in the hut, nor was she in Falgor's office, and the sharp scent of medical supplies and blood that permeated the air caused a shivering jolt of fear and apprehension to rattle through her. It reminded Tori of hospitals and disease, two things she was petrified of.

"'Bout time," she heard someone grunt, snapping her out of her frozen sphere of fear, and the teenager recognized the voice as her sister's.

"Shut up, Tessa," Tori then groaned, anxiety momentarily forgotten, waving a hand at where she thought the blonde was.

The brunette didn't hear the reply—not like she would've cared anyway—because at that moment, her mind wandered to the dream she'd had. Sighing, she rolled over onto her side and pulled the blanket up close to her head, bunching it around her neck and ears. She felt the weighted tug at the back of her heart that accompanied such thoughts. A tug that she'd been trying to ignore.

"Tori," she heard Tyler say softly, his voice quiet and sincere. "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine," she answered in a low tone. "Just need some alone time is all."

Tori heard her sister sigh in annoyance, likely remembering all of the times she'd been told that when they left the house on outdoor excursions to a party, the pool, or the beach, and she half expected them to deny her request. Thankfully for her, the sound of retreating footsteps and slowly fading, hushed voices floated to her ears.

Thanking God for giving her time to think, Tori tucked the blanket closer to herself and tried not to think about her dream. She made her mind wander to anything she could: flying chickens, dragons, waterfalls, the stories she wrote, her crazy friends.

But nothing helped, especially not the last thought.

Growling at herself, the girl tried kicking her feelings into the lava pit she used in her mind to throw away bad thoughts or things she didn't want to think about.

That didn't work either.

And so, after what seemed like days of struggling, Tori gave in and just let her mind cling to the topic that it so desperately wanted to reminisce on.

With another sigh, she closed her blue eyes and let the internal camera roll, let the images play on the screen. The weight tugging at the back of her heart pulled again, an ever-present reminder of what she felt. Then, familiar words sounded in her mind.

_"Love suffers long and is kind;_

_love does not envy;_

_love does not parade itself,_

_is not puffed up;_

_does not behave rudely,_

_does not seek its own,_

_is not provoked,_

_thinks no evil;_

_does not rejoice in iniquity, _

_but rejoices in the truth;_

_bears all things, _

_believes all things, _

_hopes all things,_

_ endures all things._

_Love never fails."_

She laughed slightly at the thought, mood lightening. She'd finally remembered a Bible verse, and of course it was this one- 1st Corinthians 13: 4-8. This was the verse she'd been using to try and figure out if she truly did love somebody.

Well, not just _somebody_.

Sure, they hadn't been dating, and she'd called their relationship with each other an 'accepting of mutual affection for one another,' but Tori had still wanted to know if she _did_ love him. It didn't matter that she wasn't allowed, nor was she looking for, a dating relationship with him. She wanted to make sure that she wasn't being fake, like so many others she had met that just said they were dating someone, but they were really just using them to have some fun or make themselves look better. Tori had vowed that she wasn't the type of girl to take relationships lightly, and that was what she did and would do.

She guessed that it was easier to show trust because they had been best friends before they had been interested in one another, but at this moment in time, she just wished nothing had ever happened. She knew very well how to deal with losing friends, especially close ones, but she hadn't had experience with feelings for a guy. She sighed again, knowing that she knew how to love him as a friend, but not having any clue as to what to do when he was something more.

Suddenly sitting up and shaking her head, Tori tossed away her thoughts and furrowed her brow. This was a stupid thing to be dwelling on, anyways. There was nothing she could do about it now, trapped in this world, so why even bother?

"Hello?" she called out, trying to peer past the wall of white curtains that boxed her in on three sides, pulling across her right and left before meeting at a crease in the middle of the square-like area in front of her.

There was no answer.

"Anyone there?"

Again. No answer.

She tried one last time, but with a different strategy. "Nurse!"

At that, an orange fuzzy creature flew in, looking slightly exasperated. "You asked for me?"

"Yes mam," Tori answered quietly. "I just wanted to know where I am and when I'm getting out."

The striped—goblin, was it?—nurse rolled her eyes and sighed. "You're in the infirmary, better known as the medical ward, and you won't be here but a few more hours." The nurse then mumbled a few inaudible, angry-sounding words and flew out, leaving a gap in the curtain.

And across the walkway seen through that gap was… Trainer K?

Tori winced at the sight of his wounds. There was more bandage than elf laying on the bed across from her, and even half of his head was wrapped in gauze. Among the numerous injuries was a broken nose, half-bitten ear, beaten-in eye, and a massive scythe cut across his abdomen. His neck looked like it had been wringed by meaty hands, and one of his feet was in a cast from being reset after a break.

All this she could tell with her enhanced vision from her powers, vision that enabled her to spot weaknesses and injuries. Tori had never wanted to be a doctor—loathed the idea of it, actually. She couldn't stand being around or even the thought of disease, but at least Trainer K only had bodily wounds. _Those_ she could handle.

Rising from her bed and tossing her legs over the side, Tori slowly got to her feet and walked over to the gruff elf's bedside. He was asleep, his chest rising and falling in a ragged way, and she idly wondered what he dreamed about. Maybe he had someone on his mind as well? A family, perhaps? A wife and kids? She didn't know. Mind-reading, though possible according to Falgor, was not one of the skills she possessed.

Knowing that she really shouldn't do it, as the action would weaken her further, Tori reached out a hand and lightly brushed his stomach wound. Soft, evening blue light floated across the site of the slice, and Tori felt her energy draining from her, but she also felt the festering wound closing up to form a soft pink scar. As soon as the whole of it was sealed, the brunette retreated back a pace, panting heavily, and returned to her bed.

Trainer K's most grievous wound was now on its way to healing, and as Tori felt sleep pulling her under, she smiled gladly as she slowly slipped away.

* * *

**So, guys, I have been inspired by a devotional I'm doing to put a Bible Verse of the Chapter at the end of each chapter of my stories! Here's the one for today-straight from the devotional itself, which is Relentless, by Ed Newton. He was the speaker at Camp IMPACT, and he's an awesome guy!**

**"Be still and know that I am God;**

**I will be exalted among the nations,**

**I will be exalted in the earth."**

**Psalms 46:10**

**Thank you for reading! Please review! We love to hear what you have to say! XD**


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